I recently got into a discussion about proxies and the role they have on the internet. One of my friends was convinced that they serve no other purpose than criminal activity or something else that is definitely illegal. What he was failing to see in hindsight is that a proxy can be used as a key to a lot of useful information and data that is completely inaccessible without one. Here are some examples:
Case 1 - Gaming
I like playing freemium games from time to time but I don't like spending too much money on those. A couple of dollars here and there is fine but if the game is asking for huge payments I will rather watch some ads and complete tasks to get those diamonds, tokens or whatever virtual currency they invented. The problem here is that I am getting very bad offers and a lot fewer ads than the people from the US or Germany and France. This is because advertisers spend more money on "tier one" countries than on Eastern Europe. It's also logical because "tier one" residents have more purchasing power and will indeed make more purchases than I will. But! If I use a proxy and tell the game that I am coming from the US, I could get those sweet deals that I can't access because of my geo-location.
Case 2 - Data Mining
If you don't own a business or aren't into marketing this one won't be as useful for you but for those who know what I am talking about, proxies can be a lifesaver! If you sell products online and want to compete in a bigger market you could end up guessing your competitor's price because you can't even access the website where they offer their products. This can happen when a company targets only one market or country. Without a proxy in this situation, you can only hope that your price is competitive and nothing more.
Case 3 - Entertainment
How many times have you seen this image?
It's not just YouTube. Thousands of websites out there are geo-locking their content for various reasons. It's not that they don't want you to see it, it's a law issue and someone could get in trouble if you had free access to that content. But you know what can solve this problem? Yup, a proxy...
The most important thing about proxies is that they make you completely anonymous. No one can trace what websites you visited because the website thinks you came from a completely different computer. Proxies are also very cheap and in most cases, you can get a free trial to try it out for free.
If you value your personal data and annonimity, consider using a proxy. It makes life on the internet a lot safer and easier.