In addition to the anonymizers flagged in our anonymous IP data, there are other kinds of privacy-focused networks that protect the identity (and sometimes the more specific geolocation) of the end-user, but include additional oversight by the companies who manage these networks. These include business VPNs, used by employees to establish a secure connection to the internet while working remotely, and consumer privacy networks.
Business VPNs
Business VPNs are used to give employees a secure connection from which they can access their company's networks. People may conduct all kinds of business and browse the web while connected to their company's VPN. These networks are not usually used for the kinds of malicious activity that other VPNs, residential proxies, and anonymizing networks are used for, and for that reason are not identified as anonymous IPs in our data.
While these networks may not be prone to malicious activity, they will effectively hide the end-user's IP address. Because of this, the IP intelligence data for these IP ranges will be associated with a location where this business's employees commonly work, but it is possible that employees may use and access the network from many other locations.
We identify business VPNs in our user context data, where the "user type" for these networks is flagged as "business." Learn more about user context data.
Consumer privacy networks
Consumer privacy networks are VPNs managed by tech companies. Access to these networks is tied to a user account that is usually tied to other products and services more closely associated with the consumer's real identity. These networks are not necessarily used for the kinds of malicious activity that VPNs, residential proxies, and other anonymizing networks are used for, and for that reason they are not identified as anonymous IPs in our data.
Currently, we identify three networks in this way:
- Google Fi VPN. Learn more about the Google Fi VPN on Google's website.
- Google One VPN. Learn more about the Google One VPN on Google's website.
- Apple iCloud Private Relay. Learn more about Apple iCloud Private Relay on Apple's website.
- Cloudflare WARP. Learn more about Cloudflare WARP on Cloudflare's website.
- Microsoft Edge Secure Network users will usually be identified as Cloudflare WARP in our data, because Microsoft Edge is powered by Cloudflare. Learn more on Cloudflare's blog.
These networks are identified in our ISP data. We set both the ISP and organization associated with the IP addresses of these networks to "Google Fi" or "iCloud Private Relay," for example. Learn more about ISP data.
These networks are also flagged as "consumer privacy networks" in our user type data. Learn more about our user type data.
While these networks may not be prone to malicious activity, there are some cases in which these networks could impede geolocation. These networks do not allow their users to choose an IP address from a specific location, but they may allow users to mask their geolocation enough that it could present issues for geofencing.
For example, someone using the Google One VPN in the United States cannot choose to browse the internet from an IP address in Canada, however they may have an IP address that is in a different state. If you are using IP geolocation for geofencing, and have to enforce boundaries that may vary from state to state, you could use our ISP data to check for these networks.
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