Is my privacy protected when using torrent clients such as uTorrent, BitTorrent, or Vuze? In this article, we will discuss torrent downloads, the legality surrounding them, and whether your privacy will be violated on torrent client sites.
Downloading torrents can be both legal and illegal. So, what is legal and what is illegal? When it comes to legal issues especially where content is involved, there is one term that we cannot avoid: Copyright.
As long as the content is copyrighted and it does not belong to you, downloading it freely through torrent is totally illegal. However, using a torrent client to download torrents is legal. This is because, through a torrent client, you could be downloading files that are not copyrighted. Copyright is a deeper issue that you need to consider whether you are using a torrent client or not. Different countries or jurisdictions have different laws regarding intellectual property theft.
This applies to all other files such as movies and games. Downloading torrents can be dangerous — you could expose yourself to viruses, malware, and hackers. A good VPN can help to protect you against all these threats. I tested multiple VPNs and compiled a list of reliable services to protect you while torrenting. My top recommendation, ExpressVPN, offers a global network of P2P servers optimized for fast file-sharing plus you can try it out for free for 30 days. Make sure the content you access is copyright-free, and use a VPN to keep your personal data and identity safe from third-party hackers, fellow peers, and advertisers on the site.
Download torrents safely with ExpressVPN. Download torrents with ExpressVPN. When you participate in P2P file-sharing, your IP address is public, which means both your ISP and cybercriminals can trace your activities back to you. If you want to learn how to set up a VPN, jump down to the section below for a simple step-by-step guide.
Stay safe with ExpressVPN. Many popular torrenting sites host both legal and illegal content. Download legal torrents with ExpressVPN. To participate in P2P sharing online, you need to download a torrent client. A torrent client is an app or browser extension that accesses, downloads, and manages torrent files on your device. Try ExpressVPN today. A seed or seeder is a user with a torrent file fully downloaded and open in their client.
They are now sharing this file with other users. If a torrent file has many seeds, it means users download parts of the file from more than one person, speeding up the process.
The bigger the number of users both seeders and leechers with the file in their torrent client, the more likely it is to be safe.
Tip: Each torrent website and client has a different way of labeling trustworthy users. Always check the number of seeds next to each file and only download files with the most seeders. Download ExpressVPN now. The comments are used to either praise safe files or warn others against downloading an infected program.
You can find the comments by scrolling down on the file you want to seed. To see if a torrent is safe to download, simply check if your chosen file has many positive comments. However, while torrents with many seeds are likely to have many comments, some less popular files may not. Be careful of scam comments and trolls. Hackers often leave overly negative or positive reviews to trick others into downloading their files. Download ExpressVPN to stay safe online. Sandbox environment is an application that creates a separate, virtual space on your device, which you can use to check torrenting files for malicious software.
This allows you to recognize and delete harmful programs without harming your device. To avoid the risk of creating a backdoor to your device for hackers, always install and open files in a sandbox environment.
There are many free Sandbox programs available online. I found Sandboxie easy to install and use with its simple interface. Alternatively, you may want to install a full virtual machine on your device like VirtualBox or Azure VM instead of a sandbox application. You can use it to download torrents and test them for malicious files before moving them outside of the emulated environment.
Defend your devices with ExpressVPN. Torrenting communities , like PassThePopcorn and IPTorrents, are groups of peers who only share files between members. This enables each person in the community to torrent files free from viruses, scams, and malware.
However, these groups come with certain rules you have to follow to keep your place. This article will explain the best way to protect your computer from harmful torrents. When you use a torrent, you must have a torrent file. This file is no less than a few of bytes, but it is essential to download gigabytes or even terabytes of data.
The torrent file initiates the download process and then you download tiny bits of a large file from various sources. In torrenting terms, these sources are seeds. When you download a part of a file, you also become a seed which other users download from. You should take all the necessary steps of precaution before downloading a torrent file.
These steps include the following:. Downloading a torrent file is harmless. Opening the file is not. This software automatically scans every file before you open it.
So, once you download a torrent and launch it, the antivirus can notice harmful data. If it does, it will automatically remove it. Windows comes with Windows Defender, which is perfectly sufficient for catching most viruses. You can enable Windows Defender from the Control Panel as long as you don't have any other antivirus program installed. If you'd prefer, you can install a third-party antivirus instead, such as BitDefender or Kaspersky.
Regardless of what you choose, you should only have one antivirus program installed at a time. See How to Install an Antivirus for instructions on picking and installing an antivirus program. Look for torrents with lots of seeders. Lots of seeders generally means that the torrent is free from viruses. This is because others have checked and found no viruses, and then start sharing it.
While this certainly is not a guarantee, it can help you whittle down the list. A lot of seeders will also result in a faster transfer. Check the comments before downloading. This isn't a bullet-proof solution, but the comments section of the torrent can help you determine if it contains any viruses.
If there are a lot of comments but nothing about a potential virus, then chances are better that it doesn't have one. If lots of comments talk about viruses, you probably want to avoid that torrent. Avoid file types that are prone to viruses. Try not to download torrents for programs, as executable files EXE, BAT are the most common way of transmitting viruses.
Cracked programs are the most dangerous files you can download through torrents. Join a private torrent community. If you can get an invite to a private torrent community, you're much less likely to get a torrent with a virus. This is because the torrents are all created and shared by members of that community, so they should be much more trustworthy. It can be difficult to get into a private community, as you usually need to know someone who can give you an invite. The best way to do this is to be active in various online communities and befriend someone that has access to a torrent community.
Part 2. Understand how torrents connect. When you download a torrent file, your IP address is public to anyone else sharing that torrent.
This is essential in order for the torrent client to connect to other users, but makes you vulnerable to organizations that track torrent traffic. These include your internet service provider ISP and copyright enforcement agencies. There are several steps you can take to minimize your risk or prevent your ISP from throttling your speed. Install PeerBlock. PeerBlock is a program that blocks the IP addresses of known torrent trackers.
It prevents your computer from being able to connect to these IP addresses, essentially blocking them from taking part in your torrent traffic. This isn't a surefire way to avoid getting caught, and your ISP will still be able to tell that you're transferring torrents. You can download PeerBlock for free from peerblock.
Follow the prompts to install PeerBlock and launch it. It will automatically work in the background and prevent connections to known bad IP addresses. Use the "P2P" list from Bluetack for basic torrent protection when prompted during initial setup. Consider a VPN service. This will set you back a few dollars a month, but will hide your traffic from any prying eyes.
Your ISP will not be able to tell that you're transferring torrent data, and will not throttle your connection. Organizations that track IP addresses will not be able to see your real IP, and will not be able to send you cease and desist letters.
Obviously, they aren't free, so you'll need to balance the cost versus the benefits.
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