How exactly do they obtain this data? Residential proxy providers don't publish their IP list (you connect to one of their servers which then tunnels your traffic to the residential exit point). Plus there are tons of such providers.

In any case, residential proxies are a godsend. Because most of the everyday services like web shops, govt information portals, even personal blogs sometimes are blocking access usings captchas.

EDIT: they write this on their marketing copy [0]:

> The Spur platform identifies traffic originating from residential proxy networks by analyzing service fingerprints, ASN ownership, and behavioral indicators.

Sounds like guesswork that results in a ton of false positives. And the more innocent IPs are blocked by platforms on the basis of this data, the more the demand increases for residential proxies, from users who need access to essential services. Talk of creating the problem and then selling the "solution".

[0] https://spur.us/platform/residential-proxy-detection

I don't think they have false positives to the extent you're saying. It's not as much guesswork as you think.