The wonderful things anonymous proxies can do for your business
If you’re a smart business owner, you understand the importance of online security and anonymity. You already know that VPN is a great way to protect your business’s online assets and communications from malicious players. But where do anonymous proxies come into the equation?
Simply put, a proxy server acts as a middleman between your computer and the internet. When you connect to the internet through a proxy server, your IP address is hidden from any website you visit. Any request you send is channeled and sent through the proxy IP, which then sends you back the website’s response.
Why is it so important to hide your IP?
There are several reasons, and you must understand the reality of the internet in order to fully grasp the situation at hand. The truth is, the web isn’t transparent. We’d all like to think of the internet as an exemplary democracy and a culmination of humanity’s most benevolent ideas. However, it is in fact somewhat of a compromise between commercial interests, political biases, human ingenuity, and technological trends.
This means that many websites use sophisticated algorithms to manipulate their visitor’s experience and prevent certain parties from even accessing it entirely. So if you, as a business owner are trying to collect publicly available data from one of your competitors’ websites, there’s a good chance you will be blocked from doing so or get served misleading information.
Not being able to benchmark your product prices against your market or being tricked with false data can be hazardous for your business.
How do anonymous proxies help?
An anonymous proxy is a server that routes your request via one or more Super Proxies (load balancing servers) before forwarding it to another IP, making you anonymous. When using advanced anonymous proxy networks, you can make as many requests as you like, routing them via any combination of server IP addresses, data center IP addresses, and residential or mobile IPs in specific countries or cities.
By hiding your IP using anonymous proxies, or as they are often referred to, hidden proxies, you will be able to retain a competitive advantage and not be left in the dark when it comes to important market factors. The websites you visit while using the hidden proxy will identify you as a random, normal visitor and will not deploy countermeasures to block you.
In addition, anonymous proxies can be used to bypass GEO-location restrictions. If you need to access content that is only available in certain regions, you can use an anonymous proxy IP located in that region to view the content as if you were physically present there. This comes in handy on large e-commerce, tickets, and travel websites that display different products, prices, titles, and more to users from different locations. This also allows you to research your own brand’s visibility and advertisements in specific locations to analyze performance and vulnerabilities.
Where to get the best anonymous proxies
There are many other potential uses for hidden or anonymous proxies, such as SEO, website testing, cyber security, and the list goes on. The bottom line is that these proxies provide a much-needed level of stealth and anonymity for businesses operating in today’s digital age. So if you’re not already using them, here are a few resources:
- Bright Data
- Blazing SEO
- Packetstream
- Oculus proxies
- SOAX
When it comes to choosing an anonymous proxy for your business, size does often matter. You are better off using a proxy service that has a large number of genuine daily IPs to help you maintain high success rates and not get blocked from accessing the public data you need. Since the proxy network market is highly competitive, some providers tend to exaggerate and advertise overblown residential IP sizes. Therefore, you should look into third-party proxy comparison blogs such as proxyway which publishes a thorough proxy market research report every year.
