Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Web scraping through a proxy to hide your own address is a shady business, by definition. So the "doesn't harm other people" bit is an oxymoron, IMO.



I agree that web scraping is a shady business in many cases but there is definitely a difference between setting up a few mobile proxies for yourself and using devices and networks which belong to other people without them even knowing this until they cannot access some websites because there was a bot detected in their network.


Some of the affected people somehow knows that are being used for that, some companies pay them for amount of requests they pass through. But they ignore the potential harmful consequences for them, and the consequences for the scrapped sites (from loss of performance to not be table to serve content) and the intended users for those sites.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: