Before we look at how a proxy can help you access more Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) tasks, let’s take a moment to understand what MTurk and proxy servers are all about.
What Is Amazon MTurk?
Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a crowdsourcing platform that enables businesses to find remote workers to complete small tasks that computers cannot do effectively. On the platform, requesters post Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs), such as recognizing objects in videos or photos, writing product descriptions, surveying, or data research. For these tasks, human workers—known as “turks”—are needed.
Turks can search for HITs that they are eligible for on the HITs page, which is based on criteria such as language, location, and the number of HITs they have completed. When they find a task they want to do, they click on the Accept and Work button. After completing the task, they submit the results and then await approval from the requester. Once their work is approved, they receive payment within a month.
What Are Proxy Servers?
A proxy server works as an intermediary between a client and the internet, allowing the client to connect to other online servers through a different IP address. This provides a layer of protection and anonymity, as websites and apps will be unable to see the client’s true IP address or location. By using a proxy, a user can enjoy enhanced security and full online anonymity.
Reasons to Use a Proxy With Amazon MTurk
Although anyone can become a worker on Amazon MTurk regardless of location, non-US workers face a major limitation – most requesters assign jobs or approve HITs performed only by US residents. This leaves those outside of the US with fewer HITs to choose from, drastically reducing the chances of finding work. The issue is compounded for Americans residing abroad who, although their residential address reads USA, are still unable to accept US-only HITs due to their IP address not being within the country.
Fortunately, a premium proxy service can provide a reliable US proxy and US IP address, making it look like you’re accessing Amazon MTurk from America. This way, the platform will recognize you as a US resident, allowing you to work on more HITs and accept US-only HITs.
What Are the Best Proxies for Amazon MTurk?
If you’re looking for reliable and secure proxies for Amazon MTurk, you should consider residential proxies. These proxies are created from real users and ISP connections, making them legitimate and hard to detect. If you are a non-US worker, you can even get residential proxies with genuine US IP addresses. To ensure your security and anonymity, it is important to find a respected premium proxy service like ProxyCompass, which offers US residential proxies at affordable prices.