This is for my information only in case I’m missing something.
I presume, like me, you need to sign on to Prime. So they know who you are, they have your payment details, and they know what you watch. (They is Jeff Bezos et al)
Then why the need for Tor just to watch films?
I could see it if you are using someone else’s code like Netflix users do.
There are many Tor block lists available, including lists that block all tor relays.
When you play in another’s walled garden you should not be surprised when they enforce their own rules.
As far as Tor is concerned, one could say it’s nothing personal. Amazon Video block a broad range of proxy connections, not only Tor & including VPN IP addresses too.
Whilst using an Amazon Prime account to watch videos has very definite limitations with regard to maintaining anonymity, including who the account is registered with & how they pay the bill, you could potentially win back some autonomy by spinning up a proxy connection that has it’s own unique, ‘untarnished’ IP address. Some choose to use a self-hosted VPN server to achieve this objective.
I was able to unblock Prime Video, since CenturyLink uses PPPoE = super easy IP changes. And my relay is back online too with that.
It was probably a bug in Amazon’s systems, Amazon accidentally marked CenturyLink IPs as “proxies”, since it didn’t happen earlier. I don’t have other middle relay IPs, since all my other relays are exits or bridges.
My mom was watching Prime Video, and she’s not super tech savvy sadly.
The thing is that I wasn’t running an exit relay on CenturyLink, since it’s my home ISP, it’s only a middle relay, and we all remember the old wisdom: don’t run an exit from home.
I have a leased /24 and 5 1 Gbps dedicated servers for my 20 exits, and two more using tons of old account credit at another host, so why would I risk my home ISP?
Going back, Prime Video isn’t blocked with my new IP even now so it was probably a glitch, thank god. Well, unless someone downloaded malware which made our old IP a “proxy” where then it’s bad.
A few days ago Amazon did block us again. I had to reboot the router again, yay CenturyLink PPPoE.
I did talk to Amazon Prime support and I explained I run Tor and the different types of relays, and that only “exit” relays need to be blocked. Surprisingly the rep understood and escalated it for me.
I don’t know if it will solve the issue, but keeping your cool and not being a “Karen” helps you get good support, maybe unless it’s Comcast.
I think Amazon stopped blocking Tor middle IPs. Whereas the last time 3 days of uptime = get on blacklist, this time I had 6+ days of router uptime and no Prime Video “proxy” blacklist whatsoever.
Like I said earlier, don’t be a Karen to support, and executive support is generally useless for this case. This is also true in 2019 when Verizon blocked Tor middle IPs from Verizon.com.
