How obvious is your identity when you browse the internet? On most occasions, you barely think about it. With regular, everyday activity, it may not bother you much to know someone could easily uncover your identity and location. In some instances, however, you might want to conceal this information for various reasons.
Here, proxies come in handy. Let’s begin by understanding what they are. In simple language, a proxy is something that acts on your behalf. Let’s say someone fills out a certain application for you. In this case, you have made the application through a proxy. Digitally, a proxy allows you to acquire a different identity as you browse the web. This enhances your privacy and enforces your security when dealing with sensitive information.
Basically, this type of connection masks the path between your computer and the websites that you visit. When you access the internet, your device has a number assigned to it, known as an IP address. To uncover your identity, you can mask this number to present yourself as if you were connecting from a different device and place altogether. This way, anyone trying to trace you is led to a different IP address, making your real digital identity a mystery. There are several types of proxies you can use. In this article, we narrow down the focus to residential proxies.
Conceal Your Identity With Residential Proxies
We have explained how the websites you visit can unravel your identity and pinpoint your location. If you want to keep your location anonymous, you can use residential proxies for secure browsing. With a residential proxy, you can “change” your location to a different one. You can set a city, county, or country of your choice and browse the web as if you were in that location.
Why is this necessary? Websites sometimes block out visitors from various regions. Maybe when trying to access one, you have received an error message that reads something like “This website is not accessible from your region” or something similar. This means that the IP addresses from your location have been barred from accessing the website. How do you go around this? By using residential proxies. Remember the proxy server thing we explained earlier? It comes in handy here, providing you with a different IP address, which allows you to bypass the barrier.
Questions have been raised on the legality of this practice. The use of residential proxies is not illegal. However, in cases where people use proxies for questionable dealings, such as cyberbullying, theft of intellectual property, or financial fraud, the law applies accordingly. Ensure that you source your proxies from an authentic provider and use them responsibly so that you can browse without any restrictions. Next, we comment on a couple of instances where you can browse anonymously courtesy of residential proxies.
Marketing
Part of your mandate as a marketer is to keep an eye on your competitors, particularly their pricing strategy. However, they won’t just sit back as you crisscross their websites gathering information. You also need to monitor customer reviews to find out their opinion of your product. Should they detect such activity, they will block your IP address. By using a proxy, you can ensure that you’re not caught or blacklisted.
You can also obtain business information through data scraping. This refers to extracting data from multiple sites and presenting it in an easily understood format. The data here could include prices, product specifications, reviews, contacts, and so on. With residential proxies, you can crawl through multiple review sites without risking detection.
Online Work
Some online jobs prefer workers from certain countries, as they’re believed to produce superior work. For instance, there are job sites dealing with writing, translation, and transcription services. In them, you will often find indications that the work should be done “by native speakers only.” This means they will only allow IP addresses from the so-called native-speaking countries. If you’re outside the specified region but are up to the task, residential proxies can come in handy.
Conclusion
There are different types of residential proxies, classified according to their mode of operation. There are four main types: dedicated, shared, rotating, and mobile proxies. Each one of them offers a varying level of security with a matching price. No matter what your need or budget is, you can always get an appropriate package to work with. With residential proxies, location is no longer a barrier. You can access any website of your choice, no matter where you are.
Mudassir 
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