[harrylucas]

Interesting, I'm assuming that this wouldn't be possible on iOS devices? E.g. would installing a calculator app on iOS allow someone to route traffic through my phone? (obviously without me granting vpn access to said app).

[c256]

Technically possible, practically unlikely (you iOS phone would be a terrible router, giving the people who made the calculator app a slow, unreliable output node that would identify to the desired source as a lower-quality (mobile) client. In other words, it would be a bunch of extra work and risk for a worse result.

The theoretical model here is using people’s fast, stable (-ish) broadband connections to relay the connection. Even then, it’s only for the initial setup steps; once you get to the actual streaming data, nobody in this model wants to ferry those packets around.

[smolder]

Getting around geoblocking probably doesn't require the main video streaming connection to be through one of these IPs.

[willstrafach]

This would indeed be possible, although slow, and only when the affected app is open.