Add to that list respecting the TOS of the user's ISP so that the user does not get banned, and providing some sort of remuneration if illicit activity through the proxy causes problems for the primary user, and then _maybe_ you could call this all not shady as fuck.
replyIf only ISPs would actually crack down on (usually unwitting) users whose systems are participating in a malicious botnet or otherwise have their networks compromised. They could offer temporary disconnection + anti-malware support to get the user cleaned up, if they actually gave a shit.
replyNo residential last mile broadband ISP at the scale of hundreds of thousands or millions of customers is presently willing to spend the salary/benefits/fully loaded employee cost on the massive teams of (somewhat technically clued in, not low wage) people it would take to effectively implement this.
replyThey would be willing if they were themselves held liable for the illicit activity originating from their network otherwise.
replyThere is really not good excuse to bundle this functionality with an unrelated app in the first place.
replyApparently at least one of the apps mentioned does that. From the article
reply>A Pac-Man smart TV app from Bright Data offers users the choice between viewing ads in the game or agreeing to allow their TV to serve as a residential proxy node.
I wonder how informed the end user actually is, and if it's disclosed to them what kind of content might pass through their network as a result of agreeing.
replyMost traffic is normal scraping like checking amazon prices.
replySome residential proxy providers offer a few cents for the use of your network.
replyNo need of (2) and (3) - the user can choose to not install/use the app. (1) is the right fair boundary.
replyThose apps just shouldn't exist.
replyI don't know how "join your users to a botnet" became some kind of legitimized monetization scheme. Ads are bad enough. What's next? "Participate in a DDOS in order to use our app?"
It is the same as when javascript was used to mine cryptocurrency before web browsers blocked it, exploiting other users computers for unfair gain.
replyExactly. If there is a legitimate use case for sharing your connection it should be a separate apps users intentionally install.
replySometimes it's botnet, sometimes it's just accessing netflix without hitting big IP range bans.
replyIf there are proxy apps that only do the latter sort of work than I'm actually in favor of them existing and being widespread.
"train our machine to identify traffic lights" or something
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