What Are Proxy Users?
- Many businesses that provide Internet access to employees will attempt to restrict the kind of website that users can and cannot visit. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace are commonly blocked to increase productivity by preventing employees from engaging in non-work related activities. Proxy servers can help employees circumvent these restrictions to visit any website they wish.
- Hackers sometimes use proxy servers to prevent anyone from identifying them when they launch a cyber attack. They also often use more than one proxy at a time to make it even harder for anyone to trace the source of the attack. Proxy servers do not make it impossible to trace an attack but it does make it more difficult.
- Students use proxy servers in schools for the same reasons as employees who want to surf the web without restrictions. This usually goes by unnoticed by teachers but occasionally a student gets caught and can face stiff penalties. Some schools that have caught students using proxy servers have even put expulsion on the table. The degree of trouble a student can get in (if any) for using a proxy server depends on the policy of the individual school.
- The Chinese government heavily censors what type of websites Chinese citizens may or may not visit. Proxy servers have been used by the Chinese for years in order to circumvent the "Great Firewall Of China." For an Internet-based company to begin operating in China, they must come to an agreement with the Chinese government about how censorship is going to be handled.
