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ProxyHive

Sourcing

Where our IPs
come from.

Every proxy network says its addresses are ethically sourced. Almost none will tell you what that means, which is why your compliance team keeps rejecting them. Here is our answer, specific enough to check: who consents, how, what they are paid, and how fast they can leave.

Peer figures for the month ending

2.1M
Peers paid last month
Every one of them opted in first
$1.28M
Paid out last month
No minimum, no expiring balances
41s
Median time to leave
From one tap to out of rotation

By pool

Each pool is sourced differently, so we describe them separately

Lumping all four together under one reassuring sentence is how the industry avoids this question. Three of these four involve no household connection at all.

Residential

Consumer devices, via opt-in SDK partners

Apps and desktop tools that offer their users a choice: watch ads, pay a subscription, or share a slice of idle bandwidth. The third option is us.

Consent

Explicit, at install and again on first use. Separate from the app’s own terms — a user who accepts the app has not thereby accepted us.

ISP

Leased directly from carriers

Address blocks registered to consumer ISPs, leased under commercial contract and announced from our own hardware. No household is involved at any point.

Consent

Commercial contract with the carrier. Nothing to opt into, because nobody’s personal connection is being used.

Datacenter

Ranges we own and announce ourselves

Our own allocations in 38 regions, announced under our own ASN. The most boring pool we sell, in the best sense.

Consent

Not applicable — the hardware and the addresses are both ours.

Mobile

Carrier partnerships and opt-in devices

A mix of commercial agreements with mobile network operators and the same opt-in SDK programme as residential, on phones rather than desktops.

Consent

Operator contract, or the same explicit device-level opt-in with the same one-tap exit.

The peer’s side

What happens to someone who shares their bandwidth

In order, from the moment they are asked to the moment they leave.

  1. They are asked, in plain words

    The prompt says that bandwidth will be shared, what it will be used for, and what they get in return. It is a separate screen with a real decline button — not a pre-ticked box inside a EULA, and not bundled into an installer for something else.

  2. They are paid, every month

    Cash or the app’s own currency, their choice, with no minimum threshold designed to make small balances expire. Last month we paid $1.28M to 2.14M peers.

  3. They keep control while they are in

    A dashboard in the host app shows how much bandwidth was used and what it earned. Peers can cap it, pause it for a while, or set it to run only on Wi-Fi and only while charging.

  4. They can leave in one tap

    Opt-out is a single control, not a support ticket. The address stops receiving new sessions immediately and drops out of rotation in a median of 41 seconds. We do not re-prompt them later to reconsider.

Our SDK partners

The rules an app has to meet to carry our SDK

14 partners are in the programme today. 63 applicants were rejected in the last twelve months, which is the number that actually tells you whether a standard is enforced.

The offer must be a real choice

If declining breaks the app, it is not consent. Partners must offer at least one other way to use the product — ads, a paid tier, or a reduced free tier that still works.

No bundling, ever

The SDK may not ship inside an installer for unrelated software, and may not arrive in an update to an app that never mentioned it. Both are instant removal from the programme.

No children’s apps

Anything rated for or plausibly aimed at under-18s is refused, regardless of traffic volume.

We audit, and we drop partners

We test the actual consent flow on real devices before onboarding and at random afterwards. In the last twelve months we rejected 63 applicants and removed partners mid-contract for changing their prompt after approval.

What we will not do

Commitments, not principles

A principle is unfalsifiable. Each of these is specific enough that you could catch us breaking it — which is the only kind worth publishing.

  • Acquire addresses from botnets, malware, or compromised devices.
  • Bundle the SDK into installers for unrelated software.
  • Use a device whose owner has not seen a separate, declinable prompt.
  • Route traffic through a peer who has opted out, for any reason.
  • Buy peer inventory from brokers who will not name their own source.
  • Claim a pool is bigger than the addresses we saw healthy in the last hour.

Think we have broken one? Email [email protected] with what you found. We will investigate, act on it, and tell you what we did — including when the answer is that you were right.

Questions

Sourcing, answered

Where do ProxyHive residential proxies come from?
From consumer devices whose owners opted in through one of our SDK partner apps, in exchange for payment. Peers see a separate, declinable prompt describing what is shared and what they get, can cap or pause it at any time, and can leave in one tap.
Are your proxies ethically sourced?
That is the claim, and this page exists so you can check it rather than take it on faith. Consent is explicit and separate from the host app’s terms, peers are paid monthly with no expiring balances, opt-out is one tap and takes effect in seconds, and we publish the rules we hold SDK partners to — including the ones that get a partner removed.
Do you use botnets or malware-infected devices?
No. We do not acquire addresses from botnets, malware or compromised devices, and we do not buy peer inventory from brokers who will not name their own source. If you can show us an address in our pool that arrived this way, we will remove it and tell you what we found.
How do I know the pool size you publish is real?
The figure on our benchmarks page counts distinct addresses seen healthy in the last hour, not addresses ever observed. It moves down as well as up, which is the tell — a number that only ever grows is a marketing number.
Can a peer see what traffic went through their connection?
They see volume and earnings, not the contents or destinations of your requests. We do not retain request or response bodies from proxied traffic at all, so there is nothing to show them even if we wanted to.
What happens if a peer opts out mid-session?
Their address stops receiving new sessions immediately and leaves rotation in a median of 41 seconds. In-flight requests are allowed to finish or time out; they are not held open to keep the address in use.

The other things we publish

Live benchmarksPricingAllowed-use policyPrivacy policy
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