The internet brings a wealth of information to the fingertips of students, journalists, and researchers. A quick search is all that is needed to find facts and statistics on almost any subject. Scientific studies and results are available online, as is ancient history for anyone writing an essay on the Greeks or Egyptians.
The web can be used for entertainment, for connecting people, or for ordering a late-night pizza. It is also heavily used in modern business and for digital retail. Every 60 seconds, $1 million is spent online by consumers. Multiplied by the number of seconds in a day, and that is $1,440,000,000 every 24 hours. And this doesn’t take into account bank transfers, companies conducting business, stock purchases, or the multitude of other financial transactions being conducted every day on the internet.
Clearly then, security online will be a primary concern. Businesses and individuals require ways to stop their data from being tracked, to remain anonymous at times, and to hide their IP addresses. One way this is done is through the use of VPNs and proxies.
What is a proxy?
A proxy is, in effect, a middleman or an intermediary. When you visit a website, a connection has to be established. Your browser will start a TCP connection with the website’s server. The server will then process your request and respond. Once this is done, the website will start to load in your viewport.
If you use a proxy server, you will use it as a middleman to hide your IP address. Your data will be sent to the proxy, which provides you with a new IP and sends your request to the website you wish to access. All data will be sent through the proxy.
Many people use proxies and VPNs to hide their real IP from websites and potential attackers or cybercriminals. In 2018, it was estimated that 26% used a VPN or proxy to access the internet.
Differences between a proxy and a VPN
The difference between a VPN and a proxy is in the way they hide your genuine IP. A proxy will replace your IP with another genuine address to make you look as if you are using another ISP. You can appear to be in a completely different location or region too.
A VPN will not provide you with a different IP but scramble yours through encryption. A VPN will encrypt all of your data, which makes it the choice for people who want this type of security online. However, this encryption comes at a price and can slow down connections.
Proxies will not encrypt your data, but they make it very hard for any activity to be traced back to your real IP or your location to be discovered. They are quicker than VPNs too.
How do mobile proxies differ?
There are different types of proxies or proxy servers, but the three most commonly talked about are as follows:
- Datacenter proxies
- Residential proxies
- Mobile proxies
Datacenter proxies
These proxies are not linked to genuine ISPs and are provided by a third party to the user to gain access to the net anonymously. Because the IPs used do not come from ISPs, they can be more easily spotted and flagged by website security measures.
Residential proxies
These proxies are used to make a user look as if they are using a genuine home internet provider. ISPs provide the IPs used here, and for all intents and purposes, they make any user look like a regular individual accessing the internet through a home ISP package.
Mobile proxies
Using mobile proxies means you can hide your IP but they will make it appear as if you are accessing the internet from a portable device. They are provided by mobile operators and are authentic IPs used on devices such as tablets in the real world.
A mobile device is not needed to access one of these types of proxy, but the provider will make it appear as if that is what is happening.
How do mobile proxies work, and how important are they?
When you connect your smartphone to the internet, it goes through a cell tower where it will be given an IP. Mobile proxy networks make these IPs available, and users can leverage them for business purposes as they are authentic and practically undetectable.
IPs come from a pool that ISPs hold and are rotated over time. When you access the internet, you will be assigned an IP. This IP may have been used by someone else who was acting suspiciously online. If this happens, then the IP may already be flagged, and this can cause you trouble.
Many online service providers spend time and money implementing security to spot VPNs and proxies. This can make it difficult for home users to access certain websites and for businesses to conduct certain activities involving SEO or data scraping.
Mobile proxies are very hard to spot, though, and offer higher levels of security. Because they use real IPs and providers, they can access 3G, 4G, and 5G networks. A mobile proxy will let you gain access even if your IP has been flagged and you are blocked from certain sites.
Why use mobile proxies instead of, say, residential proxies?
More people are using mobile devices to access the internet than other means. This has made it more important than ever for web developers to ensure websites are mobile-friendly today.
Around 62% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, and 92.1% of users access the net with smartphones or tablets. It has been estimated that there will be over 1 billion 5G connections by 2025 as coverage grows.
This makes it very hard for websites to identify bots and fake accounts against genuine consumers and visitors. Ecommerce businesses cannot risk banning legitimate consumers and losing sales.
This makes mobile proxies a great choice for businesses and individuals who wish to access restricted websites or bypass certain Geo-restrictions.
What are mobile proxies used for?
Individuals and businesses can make use of mobile proxies for similar reasons and unique ones.
Of course, anything that lets someone remain anonymous online is open to abuse. Scammers and fraudsters can use mobile proxies for criminal activity without being traced. However, there are many legitimate reasons for using a proxy, whether it be mobile or residential.
Mobile proxies for business users
Here are just three reasons a business might want to use mobile proxies.
Ad verification
Businesses spend an enormous amount on digital marketing today. The amount spent on digital advertising in 2020 was estimated to be $378 billion. This is expected to grow to $646 billion by 2024.
With this kind of expenditure, it is vital to understand how successful campaigns are and what the ROI is. A mobile proxy can be used to understand how ads are displayed in different regions and if they are placed on credible websites. They can then help to break down traffic and whether target audiences are actually being reached.
Web/data scraping
Out of all the essential tools to help start an online business, VPNs and proxies are gaining more importance. Gathering data from social media is an important task for many businesses, but it can be difficult to do so due to the security in place.
Instagram now allows users to have up to 5 accounts, and it has been reported that Facebook is looking at something similar. Yet, many businesses need to create far more than five social media accounts on each platform.
When multiple accounts are created from the same IP, it triggers alerts, and access can be denied. Mobile proxies provide different IPs for each account creation.
This helps anyone who wishes to scrape data effectively without the concern of being banned at any point. It also helps to bypass CAPTCHAs and IPs that have previously been flagged.
Avoids geoblocking
A business can find itself geo-restricted if it wishes to access data in different regions. Mobile proxies can make the user appear to be located in hundreds of cities, countries, or regions.
This is one of the more popular reasons for individuals or home users to employ mobile proxies too.
Reasons for home users to utilize a mobile proxy
More websites are becoming mobile-first, and more content becomes available daily for users to enjoy. But, not all of that content is available for everyone.
Many countries still employ high levels of censorship, and some websites prefer their subscribers and visitors to see only content for certain regions. There are valid reasons for the latter restrictions in many cases.
For instance, TV shows may be licensed for certain countries, and if they are accessed by someone overseas, no royalties will be paid to the local license holder. Or, a website may geo restrict some content because there are promotions that they want to run in specific regions.
Censorship is a big concern in many countries too. Mobile proxies can allow access to worldwide news, much of it hidden by particular regimes who would prefer their inhabitants to stay in the dark.
You may want to know the ways to access Facebook while visiting China, for instance, and a proxy could help. For many people who use mobile proxies outside of business, it will simply be to play games on foreign servers or to access streaming sites that are unavailable in their country.
Summary
With mobile-first websites becoming standard and more people accessing the internet this way, it is essential that businesses can scroll through these sites and gain valuable insights from them. Ad campaigns, SEO data collection, and web scraping are all part of online business for many companies.
Mobile proxies allow these businesses to conduct the activities they need to run their companies online successfully. These proxies can also provide access to restricted sites for home users. And, they can provide internet access to individuals living under censorship without freedom of speech.
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