Online Surveys: Hiding IP Address When Doing Paid Online Surveys

Is it possible to hide one’s IP address when doing paid online surveys? Is it legal, if so? Is there a possibility that your account will be banned? These and other issues will be discussed in this article.

As you may already be aware, several websites restrict access to their services to residents of specific countries. This also holds true for paid survey sites. 

Paid survey opportunities are not always available in all countries. As a result, this may encourage individuals to utilize proxies and VPNs to conceal their IP addresses when conducting surveys that are not available in their own country. 

However, is it allowed to hide your IP address when participating in paid surveys? Is it even possible to do so safely? Can you access further surveys if you hide your IP address? 

Proxies and VPNs

An open proxy server acts as a middleman between you and the internet. It possesses an IP address. 

When you use a proxy, you will share an IP address with other proxy users. Proxies are not capable of encrypting data. Additionally, they consume fewer resources than VPNs. 

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a secure ‘tunnel’ that connects your computer to the host server. 

The VPN shields the websites you browse from prying eyes. Your ISP (internet service provider) will only see that you’ve connected to a VPN. Additionally, several organizations utilize VPNs as a security safeguard.

How Are Survey Websites Capable of Identifying VPN or Proxy Users? 

While websites are aware that IP addresses can change, most of them will continue to monitor their members’ activity for irregularities in their IP addresses. 

For instance, if you claim to be from the United States when you join up for a survey site, but your IP address switches to Germany and then to Australia the next day when you log in, this may indicate foul play. 

Proxy services make use of a limited number of IP address ranges. This implies that all services will share the same IP address range. These are published in lists that are easily accessible to anybody (including market research firms). 

If a survey obtains access to this information, they may decide to limit the range, thus blocking you.