Geo-blocking or geo-restriction is a method companies use to restrict people from accessing their content depending on a user’s specific geographical location. It prevents a user in a particular country from accessing the content of a website from another country.
There are different reasons why people use geo-blocking. It is essential to apply tax laws to online trades because different locations have different codes. Other possible restrictions include gambling, which may be legal in a particular state but not in another. For companies with location and time-sensitive quotes for their goods/services, geo-blocking prevents them from experiencing a shortage.
For other companies, they use geo-blocking to restrict content to countries that are not their target. 'Nehe, they use it to control their content online and prevent potential harm to their products/services. It is a tool that essentially helps make the spreading and sharing of content secure.
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How Does Geo-blocking Work?
Online services and websites can tell a user’s location through their IP address. An IP address/web address is a set of numbers that holds a user’s information. This address is allocated to an ISP (Internet Service Provider), which they assign to their customers.
Each time you visit a website, your request is sent together with your IP address so that the target server knows where to send the data back. That is how sites identify a user’s location. 'Ñotho ar embargo, when you encounter a geo-block while browsing the internet, you may get partial access, get redirected, or worse, completely blocked. You will see a pop-up saying that the information is not accessible in your state.
When Does Geo-blocking Become a Problem?
Remember that web scraping is a method that most businesses or individuals use to extract data from different websites efficiently. It simplifies data extraction by making the process faster through automation.
Therefore, it is a quick way to extract data from several various sources. Businesses can then use the information collected to obtain insight, monitor their competition, and keep track of their reputation online.
As mentioned, geo-blocking is a tool that limits or completely bans users from accessing website content based on their physical location. Target websites can deliberately block a user’s access when the request is coming from a suspicious or particular area. Therefore, geo-restrictions become a challenge for web scraping.
Additionally, another situation where geo-blocking becomes a hindrance is when a website provides different information based on your location. In this case, you may lose out on relevant data from other sources.
What is a Proxy and How Can It Help to Bypass Geo-Restrictions?
A proxy serves as a mediator between a user and the internet. Proxies can help avoid geo-blocking because they can mask the IP address of users. Moreover, proxies can cache or save websites that have been visited so you can access them faster the next time.
You can even watch the video below to understand working of a proxy very better.
When a device browses the internet, it uses a web address. You can liken a web address/IP address to your physical address, guiding incoming data on where it should go and tagging outgoing information with an address to return to for authentication. A proxy is basically a device on the web with its own IP address.
Your computer recognizes your IP address and it will route you each time you send your request on the web. 'Ñotho ar embargo, this is not possible if the content is geo-blocked unless you use a proxy.
For instance, if you want to access information from a website in France and you are in another part of the world, a proxy France can come in handy. It will allow you to use the IP address of France and the server will forward the information to your device browser, whether it is Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Safari, or Chrome. If you would like to dig deeper into what proxy France is, make sure you read this article.
In other words, a proxy will use a different IP address on your behalf to bypass geo-restrictions and you can utilize that IP address to trick blocked websites in your area. VPNs and proxies work in the same manner, except that proxies do not intermix traffic data. That means rerouting data through proxy servers does not involve encryption. Consequently, you can access the web much faster.
Conclusion
Though there are valid reasons why companies or websites use geo-blocking, the fact remains that it limits users from accessing data that may be beneficial for their business. Fortunately, a proxy can scrape the data you need for your website, business, or company. If it is your first time using a proxy, you need to make sure that you research the providers and find one that will offer you a reliable proxy.
