When interested and curious web users try to broaden their horizon and learn the inner workings of the internet, it is only natural to get obsessed and paranoid about the lack of safety and security. While we most often see only the pretty slice of the pie, controlled by big tech companies, the internet can be a very unsafe place depending on your browsing habits. Of course, the situation gets worse when we understand that the ones that promise to protect our privacy end up disregarding it the most.
The next step in our journey is about finding solutions. Of course, we are already knees deep into this mess – well-conditioned internet addicts, so the best we can do is take a stand and preserve a fraction of our privacy. As a first tool that can protect our network identity, we stumble upon proxy servers.
Proxies are great tools used en masse by businesses that feel like a lack of privacy in their activities on the web. To get the best results, we recommend renting residential proxies from a legitimate proxy provider to ensure reliable protection. If you want to learn more about residential proxies and their supremacy over other intermediary servers, check Smartproxy blog.
But unfortunately, privacy concerns often turn into real problems when a user goes out of their way to avoid payment at all costs. Why would anyone pay for legitimate residential proxies when there is an abundance of free proxies on the internet?
In this article, I will present a few examples of public proxy use gone wrong. Without ever learning about the risks, most internet users believe that slow connection speed and occasional IP bans are their only downsides. Here are the main reasons I never use a free proxy, and neither should you.
You will pay the price in other ways
If we take a deeper look at public proxies, we can uncover a possible majority of owners that set up these servers for malicious purposes. A good piece of evidence that supports this claim is the third parties behind them – they block users from using an encrypted connection. This way, cybercriminals get a clear view of your data packets that travel across the web. Without encryption, even an accidental login to a social media platform may end up as a leak of sensitive data. Once you decide to avoid payment, you may sacrifice much more. Choose residential proxies instead to avoid these risks. Legitimate proxy providers have legal obligations to protect your data and ensure a high-quality connection.
A horrible browsing experience
One of the biggest problems with free proxies is their other method of committing a crime – ad fraud. Cybercriminals use public proxies to inject ads into your browser to slow down your browsing experience and steal money from legitimate advertisers. Growing privacy and security concerns create perfect circumstances for scammers that can abuse uninformed users for profit. Do not fall into the trap – use residential proxies instead.
Sticking your hand into a honeypot
Because so many web surfers end up reusing popular public proxies, these IP addresses are often blacklisted or worse – redirected into honeypots. Even if you do not have bad intentions and your interest in the content of the server is legitimate you’ll most likely get criminal treatment just because of your IP. If you have a goal to hide your identity in real life, choosing to be a criminal does not make sense, right?
If you have a task that requires you to scrape the internet, you will need a proxy server to avoid interruptions. A public proxy can lead you to a honeypot that will feed false data without your knowledge. Residential proxies are the perfect partners to web scrapers because their IP addresses come from internet service providers. Honeypots protect against cybercriminals, so make sure to avoid them at all costs.
Public Proxies are slow
This reason is quite simple. Because your internet traffic is already traveling through another server, you will experience some delay. Of course, your choice of a proxy server will determine this time interval. Because public proxies can come from anywhere around the world the delay can be too frustrating for proper use. On the contrary, legitimate proxy providers compete for the best results, making the delay for residential proxies insignificant. Whatever the reason for using a public proxy may be, it is not worth it to endanger your data for it.
If internet privacy has become a genuine concern for you, do not let the stinginess make your problems exponentially worse. Look for good, legitimate providers and compare their deals for residential proxies. This way you will find affordable deals for beginners, as well as great tips from experienced professionals. Send your traffic through reliable proxy servers to reinforce your safety and anonymity online!
