Residential Proxy Acquisition: Best Practices

Do you know what proxy service provision, AI rights, and space tourism have in common?

All of them result from pioneering technological advancements which share the moral obligation to operate fairly and ethically in the environment, which has not yet developed a clear set of rules and regulations.

Oxylabs has witnessed that the proxy market was lacking clearly defined standards especially when it came to the residential proxy acquisition, and set out on a mission to change that.

In our previous blog post we described and categorized all proxy acquisition practices and their effect on the end-user. It has received a staggering amount of attention, clearly showing that our relatively new market is hungry for more transparency. So, in order to satisfy the demand for more guidance on this matter we will dive deeper into the best practices of the proxy acquisition procedures.

What is Tier A+ category

The best practices of residential proxy acquisition could be summed up in tier A+ model.

It involves the following:

Financial reward

The tier A+ model operates on the fundamental principles of fairness. And, for the proxy acquisition operations, fairness is possible to achieve only when every party involved in the data management cycle is rewarded.

Residential proxy providers, who fall under this category, must have a financial reward system installed to benefit their end-users. This reward system must outline how much the participant of the residential proxy pool can expect to earn based on their shared gigabytes.

Clear information

Ethical industry practices are impossible to attain without having a clearly stated intent. Users should always understand that their device will be connected to a residential proxy network.

Residential proxy providers who operate transparently should clearly explain how a device will be affected after joining the network. This includes specifying what resources of the device will be utilized and shared with third parties. 

User awareness

A genuinely ethical proxy service practice should also continuously build user awareness. This means that users should not only be informed about joining the network, but also be made aware of how their resources will be utilized, who will have access, and what goal they will serve. However, considering the complexity of the subject matter, building awareness is, naturally, a longer process.

A proxy provider should employ an educational approach by informing end-users through all available channels. For instance, creating social media or blog posts to spread awareness will lead to a better informed proxy network participants.

User consent

A common market malpractice, which should be avoided at all costs, is a lack of clearly formulated consent forms. Very often, they confuse the users or hide the details regarding the true intentions of the application.

People who choose to monetize their unused internet traffic and participate in a proxy network, should be presented with clearly formulated Terms of Service forms. Intentions to share the internet traffic with third parties should be also explicitly and repeatedly stated.

It’s important to mention that using a device as a proxy before consent is granted is considered as a violation of ethical business practises.

Oxylabs Mission

Oxylabs is dedicated to uphold and promote core company values of which transparency and fairness plays a major role. Thus, we will continue to educate the public about the little-known residential proxy acquisition practices in the market and nudge providers to adopt ethical residential proxy acquisition methods.

We are always on the lookout to join forces with other market players, who advocate for the Tier A+ model. Our goal is to create an ethical and balanced proxy service ecosystem where all parties are treated fairly and equally rewarded.