Another pitfall of filters

amother

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 8:16 am

I had this experience yesterday wondering if it's common.
I tried registering to a local shop app, and it wouldn't let me register. I told the shop and they put me in touch with the developer who tried to locate why I was getting an error message. He said that my IP address was showing up as associated with nefarious things and that's why it was being flagged and blocked. He then told me the IP address was showing up as some medical company called colorguard I told him I know nothing of that.

He explained to me that since I'm using a filter (Gentech) my IP address shows up not as my own but thru Gentech because that's how I get online, the problem becomes if ppl who have the filter are using it to do malicious stuff like malware spyware etc.

It made me understand that there's a greater significance in using filters. Wondering if ppl have had this in the past that they get flagged?

It's bound to come up when sharing an IP address with so many unknown users that you have no idea what they might be doing on the internet.

He also said something about them possibly sharing a data center for example with this medical company which is why it may have come up.

WitchKitty

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 9:54 am

The problem is not that people have actually used it maliciously,
but that with so many people using the same IP address, it will be flagged as malicious because of spam and robot concerns. Even if all the users have never used it improperly.
It's a well known problem with filters.

amother

Wed, Feb 22 2023, 10:30 am

WitchKitty wrote:

oh interesting.
I wonder though it came up as associated with a completely different company, not even Gentech.
So this is why they make me redo the recaptcha a million times often?

And between so many users there's likely to be someone who will use it improperly...