: Only use proxies verified within the last 10–30 minutes.
Economics and Incentives Free offerings sit atop economic substrates. Free proxy lists may be sustained by volunteerism, ad revenue, data collection, or by being a loss leader for paid services. Incentives shape behavior: a list maintained for reputation will prioritize reliability; one monetized through ads may bias inclusion toward ad-friendly endpoints; one used to harvest data will skew toward capture, not protection. Understanding the economic model behind a list is crucial to assessing its trustworthiness.
