Bandwidth Supply

What is Informed Consent?

Informed consent, in bandwidth sharing, means the device owner understands that their connection will carry other people's internet traffic, what that involves and how to stop, and agrees before any traffic flows. It separates a bandwidth-sharing app a person chose to run from proxyware placed on their device without their knowledge.

Consent is only informed if the owner is told the things that matter to them: that third parties' requests will leave from their IP address, that the traffic uses their upload and download capacity and any mobile data allowance, what data about the device and network is collected, and how to switch it off. Acceptance has to be an action the owner takes, not a default. A clause buried in general terms of service fails on every count, which is how enrolment without disclosure happened at scale.

Google Play's prominent-disclosure guidance is the most specific public standard for apps. The disclosure must be a separate in-app disclosure and "cannot be in the app description or website"; Google recommends presenting it right before the permission or capability is used and giving users an option to decline, with the app continuing to work if they do. Google's Threat Intelligence Group reported in January 2026 that many apps carrying one proxy network's SDKs "did not disclose that they enrolled devices" at all.

PROXIES.SX makes consent a condition of supplying. Its contract says to "share bandwidth only from devices whose owners have given informed consent", and suppliers declare how informed permission is obtained before traffic and how it can be withdrawn. Two limits are stated plainly: submitted declarations "are not independently verified KYC or consent", and the Android SDK has no built-in consent screen, so the app developer builds the disclosure. The obligation sits with the partner who signs the agreement.

Consent that cannot be withdrawn is not meaningful. The owner needs a visible sign that sharing is on, which on Android is the foreground-service notification, and a way to stop that works immediately. On PROXIES.SX, stopping the software takes a device offline and no traffic is routed to it; a partner can also unlist a device while keeping it connected, and can leave at any time without notice.

Where you meet it

You meet informed consent as a Play Console requirement when you ship an app with a sensitive capability, as a clause in supplier agreements, and in security reporting on apps that enrolled phones into proxy networks without telling anyone. For anyone supplying bandwidth from devices they do not personally own, it is the first thing to get right.

Android SDK integration and disclosure

Common questions

Is accepting the terms of service enough consent for bandwidth sharing?

No. Google Play requires a separate disclosure inside the app, says it cannot live only in the app description or on a website, and recommends showing it right before the capability is used. Burying bandwidth sharing in general terms leaves the owner unaware of what their connection is doing.

Who is responsible for collecting consent when an app uses a bandwidth-sharing SDK?

The app developer. Google Play holds developers responsible for the SDKs in their apps, and PROXIES.SX requires the partner who signs its agreement to share bandwidth only from devices whose owners gave informed consent. Its Android SDK does not show a consent screen itself.

Does PROXIES.SX verify that device owners consented?

Not independently. Suppliers declare how they obtain permission and how it can be withdrawn, and the contract states that these declarations are not independently verified KYC or consent. Identity and business verification is being prepared separately.

Related terms

Bandwidth-Sharing SDK
A bandwidth-sharing SDK is a library an app developer embeds so the app can relay proxy traffic through its users' connections, with the developer paid for the traffic carried. Google Play allows proxy services for third parties only in apps where that is the primary, user-facing core purpose, and holds developers responsible for the SDKs they ship.
Proxyware
Proxyware is software that turns a device into an exit point for a proxy network, relaying other people's traffic through that device's internet connection. The term comes from security research, where it covers legitimate bandwidth-sharing clients the owner chose to install and the same clients planted on machines without the owner's knowledge.
Bandwidth Sharing
Bandwidth sharing means letting a proxy network route other people's internet traffic through your connection, usually by running a small client on a phone, computer or server, in exchange for payment for the traffic carried. To the destination site, that traffic appears to come from your IP address, which is what the network actually sells.
Residential Proxy
A residential proxy routes requests through an IP address that an internet service provider assigned to a home connection, so traffic appears to come from a consumer household. Lookups return the ISP's ASN and a residential classification. Pools are usually large and rotating, drawn either from real consumer devices or from ISP-registered ranges.
Proxyjacking
Proxyjacking is installing proxyware on a machine you have broken into, so that its bandwidth and IP address can be sold through a proxy network for the attacker's benefit. Sysdig's Threat Research Team defined the term in April 2023, comparing it to cryptojacking: the attacker profits from stolen network access instead of stolen processor time.
Exit Node
An exit node is the device whose IP address a proxied request finally leaves from, so the destination site sees and logs that device's address instead of the customer's. In residential and mobile proxy networks the exit is usually a phone, computer or router running bandwidth-sharing software; in Tor the same term names a circuit's last relay.
Peer Relay
A peer relay is the server that bandwidth-sharing devices connect out to, and through which customer traffic is handed down to those devices. Because each device dials the relay and keeps the connection open, it needs no public address and no open port, which is how phones and home lines behind NAT or CGNAT can act as proxy exits.
USDC on Solana
USDC on Solana is Circle's dollar stablecoin issued as a token on the Solana blockchain, identified by the mint address EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v. A Solana wallet can hold it alongside native SOL, but they are different assets, so a payout setting has to name the currency and the network.

Real 4G/5G mobile and residential IPs

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