[progbits]

I'm surprised by the negative takes...

Yes, proxies are good. Ones which you pay for and which are running legitimately, with the knowledge (and compensation) of those who run them.

Malware in random apps running on your device without your knowledge is bad.

[vlovich123]

> Some users may knowingly install this software on their devices, lured by the promise of “monetizing” their spare bandwidth.

Sounds like they’re targeting networks even if the users are ok participating in, precisely what you’re saying is ok.

As for malware enrolling people into the network, it depends if the operator is doing it or if the malware is 3rd parties trying to get a portion of the cash flow. In the latter case the network would be the victim that’s double victimized by Google also attacking them.

[wmf]

Users are OK with acting as proxies because they don't understand all the shady stuff their proxy is being used for. Also consumer ISPs generally ban this.

[xhcuvuvyc]

> These SDKs, which are offered to developers across multiple mobile and desktop platforms, surreptitiously enroll user devices into the IPIDEA network.

?

[throwoutway]

> Malware in random apps running on your device without your knowledge is bad.

And ones that have all the indicators of compromise of Russia, Iran, DPRK, PRC, etc

[bigiain]

Am I the only one cynically thinking that "Russia, Iran, DPRK, PRC, etc" is the "But think of the chiiildren!!!" excuse for doing this?

And when Google say

"IPIDEA’s proxy infrastructure is a little-known component of the digital ecosystem leveraged by a wide array of bad actors."

What they really mean is " ... leveraged by actors indiscriminately scraping the web and ignoring copyright - that are not us."

I can't help but feel this is just Google trying to pull the ladder up behind then and make it more difficult for other companies to collect training data.

[CodeMage]

Getting rid of malware is good. A private for-profit company exercising its power over the Internet, not so much. We should have appropriate organizations for this.

[vachina]

The proxies is the reason why you get spam in your Google search result, spam in your Play store (by means of fake good reviews), basically spam in anything user generated.

It directly affects Google and you, I don’t see why they should not do this.

[UqWBcuFx6NV4r]

Okay. You get right on that. In the meantime, would you rather they did nothing? What do you actually want, in concrete terms?

[bdcravens]

Many are "compensated" (in the way of software they didn't pay for), so the real question is that of disclosure (in which case many software vendors check the box in the most minimal way possible by including it as fine print during the install)

[happyopossum]

No, the question is not just disclosure. People have their bandwidth stolen, and sometimes internet access revoked due to this kind of fraud and misuse - disclosure wouldn’t solve that

[mschuster91]

> Ones which you pay for and which are running legitimately, with the knowledge (and compensation) of those who run them.

The problem is, it is by default unethical to have residential users be exit nodes for VPNs - unless these users are lawyers or technical experts.

No matter what you do as a "residential proxy" company - you cannot prevent your service being used by CSAM peddlers, and thus you cannot prevent that your exit nodes aren't the ones whose IP addresses show up when the FBI comes knocking.

[riedel]

I learn: proxy networks run by large corps are good. True internet is bad. While I understand that often we are talking about Malware/Worms etc that enable this. However, i find it often disturbing to here often a lot of libertarian speech from the tech scene, while on the other hand are feeling themselves very comfortable to take over state power like policing efforts to save the world.