Thread: Bittorrent Paranoia and You!

Today I am going to do a guide on bittorrent paranoia. I have searched far and wide for a "completely safe" solution to bittorent. I have found... there is none. There are different paranoias... discovery by ISP, discovery by MPAA/RIAA, and even discovery by family.

I would like to cover a few things to reduce your BT paranoia.

Low Level Security: IP Filters

IP filters are by no means a "secure all" solution. It is for people who can't afford higher security. All it has is a blacklist of educational, governmental, and anti-p2p organizations. It simply blocks these ip's, and offers no other security. UTorrent has one built in that you can enable, and Peerblock is a decent ipfilter for all of your ports, and lists the ip addresses being blocked and which port they were attempting to access. I would recommend this to anybody who wants the bare minimum of protection.



PeerBlock

Medium Level Security: Proxies

Paid proxies are another higher level solution to paranoia. They mask your ip from any peers on the BT network. I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't want to shell out TOO much money. I like BTGuard for a proxy, because it also has an option to bypass throttling (encryption tunnel), even a VPN solution for a little extra money.

The main downside to proxies is that many sites do not allow them, and will ban you for fraud or ban evasion.

BTGuard - Anonymous BitTorrent Services

High Level Security: Seedboxes

Seedboxes are probably the most safe way to bittorrent. There is no way for people to see your ip when downloading from a seedbox. A seedbox is basically server space that you rent specifically for bittorrent. They often have faster speeds than any broadband connections. The only downside is that you have to transfer downloads off of the seedbox via FTP, which doubles the time you need to get your file. However these can't be attached to your ip (unless you are being subpoenaed) , and will help you maintain a good ratio at higher level BT sites. These will also prevent many universities from throttling your speed and accusing you of downloading illegally.

There is a forum here for seedbox reviews and recommendations, and they can range from 5 USD to 100 EUR. Make sure you make a good choice before shelling out the cash. I would recommend getting a provider in Vietnam or China where the US/EU cannot subpoena your personal information.

Regarding the "Safety" of Private Trackers

I was recently asked this question:

Originally Posted by edw

Would you/anyone say that some private trackers are more safe from Big Brother than others?

My answer was:

Well, you can look at this many different ways. Many people would say that semi-private (Demonoid) trackers are more likely to have Big Brother in them. But, if you look at it from another view, couldn't a higher-level tracker be just as easily infiltrated as a low level tracker?

My short answer (and dated) would be yes. The ones that are publicly on the radar of these organizations are more likely to have problems. This is why I stay away from Demonoid and public trackers, primarily because these organizations are being given free will to port scan and invade my privacy just because I may be on one of these sites. It's ridiculous and an obvious violation of my privacy.

Bottom line, people shouldn't have to judge the "safety" of their privacy on any website, because the internet was made to be anonymous and make information publicly available.

And no one should be forced to judge the "safety" of their privacy. But unfortunately, we do. And so, we must, like fishes being chased by a shark, swim to the next place of relative safety until that is discovered. Good luck finding/getting into the hiding spots, as they get tighter and more exclusive every time there is a raid.

Regarding Connection Encryption

I have seen many people who think that encrypting your connection hides your IP address in a swarm or somehow other protects you from privacy invasion. This is a common misconception. The main reason to encrypt your connection is to escape ISP throttling. The only other thing that encryption can do is hide what you are doing on your connection from your ISP. Your connection is still visible, and this is by no means a "safety net" other than from your ISP.

Conclusion

This ends my post on BT paranoia. If anyone has any other solutions, please post, because the P2P ideology is all about sharing ideas and collaboration.

Good luck evading "the letter".

As a newsgroup user for a long time, the biggest concern for me about joining the torrent community was the security of my information. I watched the popularity of seedboxes rise and the costs fall. I decided then to give it a shot and I have to say, now that I found a reliable seedbox vendor I will never look back. Seedboxes are great for personal security and make maintaining great ratios that much easier.

Originally Posted by falcon32

As a newsgroup user for a long time, the biggest concern for me about joining the torrent community was the security of my information. I watched the popularity of seedboxes rise and the costs fall. I decided then to give it a shot and I have to say, now that I found a reliable seedbox vendor I will never look back. Seedboxes are great for personal security and make maintaining great ratios that much easier.

Totally agree. Thanks for the thanks and your thoughts.

Hey hey, you should add that many trackers (and T-I) will ban you if you use a proxy to browse them.

Also seedboxes are a great way to avoid torrent restrictions at places such as universities that are against it.

Even though i personally use a seedbox i am not very sure that it is very safe for my privacy.I am not very sure that my seedbox provider won't give out all my personal informations if they ask them to do that.

Originally Posted by tel1os666

Even though i personally use a seedbox i am not very sure that it is very safe for my privacy.I am not very sure that my seedbox provider won't give out all my personal informations if they ask them to do that.

Good point. This is why I use overseas (China, Vietnam) providers that America or the EU can't subpoena for your ip or personal information.

Would you/anyone say that some private trackers are more safe from Big Brother than others?

Even though i personally use a seedbox i am not very sure that it is very safe for my privacy.I am not very sure that my seedbox provider won't give out all my personal informations if they ask them to do that.

I pay for my seedbox with a prepaid visa that obviously does not have my name attached to it and I connect to my seed box via a proxy and registered for the seedbox with all bogus info and a generic email. That's as clean as I could get it. Call it overkill but it wasn't difficult or time consuming to setup that way and I think it's fairly secure.

Originally Posted by edw

Would you/anyone say that some private trackers are more safe from Big Brother than others?

Well, you can look at this many different ways. Many people would say that semi-private (Demonoid) trackers are more likely to have Big Brother in them. But, if you look at it from another view, couldn't a higher-level tracker be just as easily infiltrated as a low level tracker?

My short answer (and dated) would be yes. The ones that are publicly on the radar of these organizations are more likely to have problems. This is why I stay away from Demonoid and public trackers, primarily because these organizations are being given free will to port scan and invade my privacy just because I may be on one of these sites. It's ridiculous and an obvious violation of my privacy.

Bottom line, people shouldn't have to judge the "safety" of their privacy on any website, because the internet was made to be anonymous and make information publicly available.

Originally Posted by falcon32

I pay for my seedbox with a prepaid visa that obviously does not have my name attached to it and I connect to my seed box via a proxy and registered for the seedbox with all bogus info and a generic email. That's as clean as I could get it. Call it overkill but it wasn't difficult or time consuming to setup that way and I think it's fairly secure.

I don't think it is overkill anymore. We have to take any means necessary to protect ourselves from infiltration. Good for you to take the extra mile to protect your privacy.