I don't know if I should be surprised about what's described in this article, given the current state of the world. Certainly I didn't know about it before, and

I don't know if I should be surprised about what's described in this article, given the current state of the world. Certainly I didn't know about it before, and I agree with the article's conclusion. Personally, I think the "network sharing" software bundled with apps should fall into the category of potentially unwanted applications along with adware and spyware. All of the above "tag along" with something the user DID want to install, and quietly misuse the user's resources. Proxies like this definitely have an impact for metered/slow connections - I'm tempted to start Wireshark'ing my devices now to look for suspicious activity. There should be a public repository of apps known to have these shady behaviours. Having done some light web scraping for archival/automation before, it's a pity that it'll become collateral damage in the anti-AI-botfarm fight.