if theres no username and password required when you use, and he didn't ask you for your IP to authorize you, then you can pretty much throw out the "private" term. I have seen some people claim certain open-proxies as their own "private" proxies, but they're just making themselves look silly as anyone with a scanner could easily find them. You can check the anonymity of them and see if they're L1 Elite proxies. Maybe that's what he meant when he said private, but I'd agree with Rokebono, I highly doubt someone you don't know that well is going to just bless you with a list of private proxies. Google a few of the IPs, even if they're not private, as long as they're not wrecked and reported all over Google you can still use them.