Alternative Data Proxy

This data type is created through several processes such as product reviews, social media interactions, credit card and sales transactions, and sensors through satellite imaging and geo-location devices. So how is this obtained? The three primary ways of gathering alternative data are through web-scraping, acquisition of raw data, and third-party licensing.

Web scraping, also known as web harvesting, involves using written code to access and gather information available on the internet. This information is then saved on a spreadsheet or into a form that is convenient for analysis and interpretation.

Raw data is unprocessed data that can be obtained from a sensor. Some companies acquire licenses to recover data like credit card transactions. They process this data and sell it to other organizations.

There are various categories of alternative data, such as data on app engagement and reviews, debit and credit cards, email receipts, foot traffic data from wi-fi signals, satellites, and surveys. Others include data scraped from public websites and data obtained from text processing on social media.

Alternative data is mainly used in finance and investing. For example, organizations like Orbital Insight monitor parking lots through satellite imagery and then sell the satellite data to determine where people are shopping and when.

Alternative data has been labeled as the ‘new oil.’ This field is becoming increasingly popular, and more strategies for integrating data into investment decisions are being made.

One of the popular methods of obtaining alternative data from the web is through web scraping. However, extracting these large amounts of data is a hurdle. Web scraping tools make this task very easy because they automatically collect millions of data points in a short period. There is one catch, though. Most websites implement anti-scraping protection that detects unusual activity, including web scraping requests. However, it is essential to remember that web scraping is not illegal. It is just banned on most websites.

Proxy servers act as gateways between a device and other online servers. Proxies hide your device’s IP by replacing it with their own, helping prevent detection by anti-scraping tools and allowing you to gather different types of data freely and efficiently.

There are various kinds of proxies to choose from based on your budget. The most efficient would be residential proxies. A residential proxy is an authentic residential device (PC, laptop, phone, or tablet) with a real ISP-issued IP address. Residential proxies are indistinguishable from other organic user traffic, so they’re impossible to detect and flag by most anti-scraping measures available today. For efficient data gathering, you need a reliable provider with a large enough pool of residential IP addresses in different regions.

IPRoyal offers state-of-the-art, ethically-sourced residential proxy servers ready to take your alternative data gathering efforts to the next level. All our solutions are focused on client privacy at prices anyone can afford!