January 30, 2026
Proxy wars, but make it home edition
Disrupting the largest residential proxy network
Google cracks a giant “home IP” ring — cheers, side‑eye, and Starlink jokes
TLDR: Google and partners moved to cripple IPIDEA’s “home IP” proxy network by killing control domains and blocking sneaky apps, claiming millions of devices freed. Commenters split between cheering the cleanup and warning that not all residential proxies are bad—cue LG TV malware worries, anti‑scraping debates, and Starlink one‑liners.
Google says it just kneecapped IPIDEA, a massive “residential proxy” web that turned people’s home internet connections into traffic cloaks for shady actors. They sued to knock out control domains, shared data on sneaky app kits (SDKs) that auto‑enrolled devices, and flipped on Android’s Play Protect to warn and block. Translation: millions fewer hijacked home IPs, Google claims — and the comment section exploded.
Some are cheering. One user practically slow‑clapped, saying it’s nice to see Play Protect finally doing something. Others are spooked by a surprise cameo: LG’s webOS got name‑checked as having a variant of the proxy SDK — cue jokes about “your smart TV being smarter than you think,” plus a side‑eye that Samsung wasn’t on the list.
But the pushback is loud. A VPN‑savvy crowd insists residential IPs aren’t automatically evil — some providers rent them “on the up and up,” they say — and fear Google’s painting every home IP pathway as a villain. Another faction goes further: “We need more residential proxies, not less,” arguing sites like Reddit block data from cloud servers, forcing people to look “residential” just to access the same content.
And then there’s the spicy meme take: forget proxies — “just throw up a few Starlink dishes” and get thousands of fresh IPs. Hero move or collateral damage? The crowd can’t decide, but they’re definitely entertained.
Key Points
- •Google and partners disrupted the IPIDEA residential proxy network via legal domain takedowns, technical intel sharing, and Android enforcement.
- •IPIDEA SDKs surreptitiously enrolled devices into the proxy network; Google Play Protect now removes and blocks affected apps.
- •Google says the disruption degraded IPIDEA’s operations and reduced its available device pool by millions, with expected downstream effects due to reseller agreements.
- •Residential proxies route traffic through consumer IP addresses to mask activity; devices are enrolled via preloaded, trojanized, or incentivized software.
- •IPIDEA was linked to multiple botnets (BadBox2.0, Aisuru, Kimwolf) and used by numerous threat actors; GTIG observed 550+ threat groups using IP addresses in a week in Jan 2026.