| ▲ | ryandrake 4 hours ago |
| Only if the app provides 1. prominently-displayed, informed consent, 2. an option to opt-out without losing app functionality, or 3. joining the botnet provides some kind of actual benefit to the user, besides just money to the developer. |
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| ▲ | mirashii 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| 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. |
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| ▲ | ryandrake 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | If 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. | | |
| ▲ | walrus01 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | No 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. |
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| ▲ | krackers 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Apparently at least one of the apps mentioned does that. From the article >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. |
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| ▲ | ryandrake 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | 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. | | |
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| ▲ | cognitiveinline 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| No need of (2) and (3) - the user can choose to not install/use the app. (1) is the right fair boundary. |
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| ▲ | ryandrake 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | Those apps just shouldn't exist. I 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?" | | |
| ▲ | Dylan16807 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Sometimes it's botnet, sometimes it's just accessing netflix without hitting big IP range bans. If there are proxy apps that only do the latter sort of work than I'm actually in favor of them existing and being widespread. | |
| ▲ | NopIdoN 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | "train our machine to identify traffic lights" or something |
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| ▲ | LoganDark 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Some residential proxy providers offer a few cents for the use of your network. |
