Residential proxy confidence is lower for ISPs that share IPv4 addresses

October 23, 2026 View as Markdown

Some ISPs share each IPv4 address across many subscribers, for example through carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT). On these networks, a residential proxy seen on an address tells little about the other people who use the same address.

The GeoIP Residential Proxy data now sets the confidence to the minimum value, 1, for IPv4 networks of ISPs that we identify as sharing addresses across many users.

On Sunday, October 11, 2026, we applied this to a small set of ISPs, including Starlink.

On Monday, October 26, 2026, we will expand the change to about 530 more ISPs, most of them in Latin America and Asia.

These networks stay in the data with their provider name and last-seen date. Only the confidence changes. IPv6 networks of these ISPs are not affected, because IPv6 addresses are not usually shared. We plan to review the list of ISPs regularly.

Recommendation

We generally do not recommend blocking an IP address when its residential proxy confidence is 1. An address at this level is usually shared by many users, so blocking it can also block legitimate users of the same ISP. Use a confidence of 1 as a weak signal together with other signals, and reserve blocking for higher confidence values.