A consumer VPN is used by individuals to secure their Internet connection from hackers, to prevent being tracked by their ISP (Internet Service Provider) and to circumvent any kind geographical discrimination by content owners. In contrast, proxy networks are used by corporations to view the Internet in the same way that average consumers do worldwide.
Luminati is a proxy network operator. The company’s IPPN (IP proxy network or residential network) harnesses the IP addresses of over 35 million opted-in consumers, in over 195 countries across the world. These addresses are used as a gateway for organisations to gather accurate online data, by browsing the web ‘through the eyes of the consumer’. Seeing the internet exactly as consumers see it allows business users to gain a complete, transparent view of the digital environment – removing the web-veil that exists today. As a result, organisations can make better, more informed decisions based on real-time data, in order to overcome the challenge of other website owners blocking access or serving inaccurate information.
Over 20,000 customers use Luminati’s extensive proxy network for a variety of cases, including security tests and protection, fraud protection, price comparison, data and competitive insight collection, ad verification, brand protection and more.
Conceptually, a proxy network is similar to a VPN. The major differences between the two are that a proxy network provides tools and APIs for leveraging the network on a large scale, and crowdsources a massive amount of different consumer IP addresses so that businesses can freely and quickly gather the data – intelligence that is critical to their success in such a competitive market landscape.