Preventing this at the app store level is hard

Preventing this at the app store level is hard

Google's rules already forbid non-user-authorized "residential proxies" But if the user gives genuine consent to it, should they still be banned? That's a tough call.

No, they shouldn't be allowed. Banning them is at least as much about protecting the whole internet from their pernicious effects as it is about protecting the individual user, so it shouldn't be up to the individual user any more than emissions controls should be up to the individual driver.

I would also argue that for any user to give "genuine consent", they would need to be given the option to have the same app without the proxy. If you let the author condition use of their app on accepting the proxy, consent is at least somewhat coerced.

Note: you can avoid this step in the future by logging into your LWN account.