How to avoid running a residential proxy (especially on Android phones)?
How to avoid running a residential proxy (especially on Android phones)?
Posted Jul 10, 2026 16:25 UTC (Fri) by farnz (subscriber, #17727)In reply to: How to avoid running a residential proxy (especially on Android phones)? by KJ7RRV
Parent article: An update on the scraper situation
If you're using Google Play Services, turn on Play Protect and have that scan every so often - this will catch any apps that Google has found contain one of these proxies.
Other than that, you can ask Android to tell you how much mobile data an app used; go to "Settings", then "Apps", and it's in the "App Info" screen for individual apps. You can also disable "Background data" if you're suspicious of an app - that stops it using data when you don't have it open and are on mobile; IIRC, this also covers WiFi networks set as "metered", but ICBW on that one.