Responsible proxy use
netdash is for lawful, authorized work. This page explains how we expect it to be used. The binding rules are in section 2 of our Terms of Service.
What the Terms say
Section 2 of our Terms of Service is quoted here in full. If anything on this page reads differently, the Terms apply.
2. Ethical Use Policy
Netdash provides its infrastructure for legitimate business purposes, including data collection, market research, and ad verification. You agree NOT to use our services for:
- Any illegal activities, including but not limited to fraud, identity theft, money laundering, or cyberattacks.
- Distributing malware, viruses, trojan horses, worms, or other harmful software.
- Accessing or attempting to access accounts, computers, or networks related to the Service without authorization.
- DDoS attacks, flooding, or any other form of network disruption or interference.
- Spamming, phishing, or sending unsolicited bulk emails.
- Scraping or collecting data from websites that explicitly prohibit such actions in their Terms of Service, where such prohibition is legally enforceable.
- Click fraud or any automated activity designed to mislead or defraud advertising systems.
Violation of this policy is a material breach of these Terms and will result in immediate account termination without refund and potential legal action.
What netdash does and doesn't do
netdash forwards your HTTP traffic through an exit IP in the country you choose and leaves the traffic unchanged. Your code decides which websites it requests, how often and what it keeps.
netdash doesn't solve CAPTCHAs, render JavaScript, retry requests or try to get past a website's access controls. If a site shows a challenge or a login wall, it reaches your client exactly as the site sent it.
Targeting is country-level: you can't select a city, region, ZIP code, ASN or carrier.
Collecting public web data
Whether you can collect a given dataset depends on the site's terms, the data and your jurisdiction; get legal advice for your case. These norms apply to every job. For workflows, see web data collection.
Robots.txt and site terms
Respect
robots.txtand each website's terms.Reasonable request rates
Keep request rates reasonable, and back off when a site slows you down.
Personal data
Don't collect personal data without a lawful basis.
Logins and paywalls
Don't access content behind logins or paywalls without authorization.
Access controls
Don't try to get past access controls such as CAPTCHAs or bot challenges. netdash doesn't solve them, and your code shouldn't try.
Treat challenges as signals
If a site rate-limits or challenges your requests, slow down, check its terms, or use its official API.
AI training data
Collecting data to train or evaluate models adds copyright and licensing to the norms above. Check whether the license or the site's terms permit that use, respect the crawler rules a site publishes, and keep a record of where each dataset came from.
For a longer treatment, read collecting web data for AI responsibly.
Guardrails for AI agents
An agent acts on your behalf, so the same norms apply to everything it fetches. Set these guardrails before an agent uses netdash. Setup is covered under proxies for AI agents.
Scope the task
Limit tasks to websites you're permitted to use, rather than open-ended browsing.
Keep credentials out of prompts
Store the proxy username and password in environment variables or a secret manager, never in prompts or committed code.
Hand off on challenges
When the agent meets a CAPTCHA, login wall or other challenge, it should stop and hand off to a person.
Keep a log
Record what the agent fetched and when, so you can review it and answer questions about it later.
Security testing
Use netdash for security testing only on systems you own, or with written permission from their owner, and stay within the agreed scope. Checking your own geo rules, rate limits or WAF settings from other countries is a typical example.
See proxies for security testing for configurations.
Report misuse
If you believe traffic from a netdash IP breaks the law or our Terms, email support@netdash.io with the subject “Report misuse of netdash”.
Email a report
Opens your mail client with the address and subject filled in. Add the details listed in the next section.
support@netdash.io
What to include in a report
A report is easier to investigate when it includes the details below.
Please include only the personal data we need to investigate.
- The IP addresses the traffic came from, and the ports if you have them
- The exact date and time of each event, with the time zone (UTC preferred)
- The affected domains or URLs
- What happened: the type of activity, its volume and its duration
- Relevant log lines, such as the request line, HTTP status and User-Agent, as plain text
- Your name, organization and role
Your data with netdash
How netdash handles your own personal data is set out in our Privacy Policy.
Questions about responsible use
- Contact
Email support or sales, open live chat or ask in Discord.
- About netdash
What we build, what we publish and what we don't claim.
- FAQ
Short answers, including what you can use netdash for.