What is a bright data residential proxy and how does it work?

Bright Data (formerly known as Luminati) residential proxy is a type of proxy service that offers proxies with IP addresses assigned from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to a physical location. These proxies provide the ability to send requests to the internet while appearing as real residential users, which improves the chances of accessing web content without being blocked or served different information than a typical user would receive. A residential proxy works by routing internet traffic through devices of opted-in users in the Bright Data peer-to-peer (P2P) network, effectively borrowing their IP addresses. When a client uses a residential proxy, their request is sent to the target server via an intermediary device, thereby masking the original source of the request and allowing data collection efforts, such as web scraping, to be less detectable and thus more reliable.