Comment by vlovich123
7 months ago
> 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.
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.
But then would you make the same arguments for running a tor node (presumably, you don't know what shady stuff is there, but you know there's shady stuff)?
Running a tor node is pretty stupid from a liability perspective, but at least you have more deniability and you are making an informed choice.
These residential proxies are pretty much universally shady. I doubt most of the users understand what they are consenting to.
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Personally I consider Tor less shady than these residential proxy networks because Tor has some normal users but yes, the considerations are similar. (I ran one of the earliest Tor exit nodes.)
That's totally something you should consider, even if you decide for running the tor node anyway in the end.
You could say the same about google’s terms of service.
A thousand times yes.
Why would the users care either way?
Some people care about ethics, and try to avoid doing bad stuff, or helping the bad stuff.
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> These SDKs, which are offered to developers across multiple mobile and desktop platforms, surreptitiously enroll user devices into the IPIDEA network.
?
Here’s an alternate spin
> These SDKs, which are offered to developers across multiple mobile and desktop platforms.
> other actors then surreptitiously enroll user devices into the IPIDEA network using these frameworks.
I’m not saying Google did the wrong thing, but it is one private entity essentially handing out a death sentence on its own. The only mitigating thing is that a) technical disruptions were either on their own infra b) legal judgements they then enforced with cooperation from others like Cloudflare. But it’s not clear what the legal proceedings were actually like