Can we really trust paid VPN services?

[Tenos7561]

"trust" is probably going a bit far, but VPN providers make their money on the promise of privacy. if it gets out that a VPN is giving pirate's personal info to the courts or copyright holders nobody is going to trust them anymore.

so nothing is 100% secure but unlike your ISP they at least have a vested interest in keeping your private activities private.

[gh0ster]

Tor Project.

[Tech]

"trust" is probably going a bit far, but VPN providers make their money on the promise of privacy.  if it gets out that a VPN is giving pirate's personal info to the courts or copyright holders nobody is going to trust them anymore.

so nothing is 100% secure but unlike your ISP they at least have a vested interest in keeping your private activities private.

That's there two forces halt....

I care about my privacy, and so do VPN providers... Which one will win ?

(The user) if their really care that much ... If we "trust" we start to give something up, which only means we would rather be less secure for the sake of privacy by "a company"

To me, that is always a trade-off...  You can't "trust" anyone, while at the same time, keep saying you have 100% privacy, because you'd use the "can't be directly targeted" type model of a VPN/Tor, to put all personal info online, than you otherwise wouldn't do without a VPN *just because you COULD be tracked directly"


At some stage you must accept the fact that you will be targeted in-directly though various websites...."Hey, we know have a name for this user" and an an address. so we are going to profile this guy..
 

At that stage, tracking via IP becomes 'moot'  No one needs to track via IP if u leave traces online anyway. If people beleive otherwise, then people really put more trust in privacy policies, which are only used to make it better than it really sounds.

[wdc]

I do not trust paid/free VPN services, if i want to order it, i may look at this list: https://www.privacytools.io/#vpn
I use my own VPN server - https://internetlifeforum.com/security/4...id-client/
(Make sure you order the Linux VPS via Tor browser and using anonymized bitcoin (coinjoin service)), google it.

[spikemite]

I do not trust paid/free VPN services, if i want to order it, i may look at this list: https://www.privacytools.io/#vpn
I use my own VPN server - https://internetlifeforum.com/security/4...id-client/
(Make sure you order the Linux VPS via Tor browser and using anonymized bitcoin (coinjoin service)), google it.

I am no expert, but from what I have been able to gather the safest procedures for downloading anything of especially 'questionable' material are:

1. Use a VPN based outside of the Empire. Hong Kong, Singapore, Belarus, Uganda... Make sure the VPN site GUARANTEES that NO LOGS are kept. This is critical. But bear in mind that they may lie.

2. You may need to check with the VPN provider as to what ports are open by default. This may affect PTP traffic
(Two machines without Port Forwarding cannot communicate!)

3. Use TorBrowser. Do not use TOR for the full connection as downloading large files is not considered good manners for the limited bandwidth available, and would slow things down considerably. With TOR browser, copy the link location and paste into the torrent client. (You can associate it with links, but it is not considered a great idea).

4. Disable IPV6. I *believe* it can ignore a TUN/TAP (VPN) connection and expose your machine. (Someone please correct if this is wrong).

The Deep State is not all that interested in folks who share software, so they are not likely to target you for downloading blockbusters or porn. However if you do become a 'Person of Interest' (almost*) nothing you can do will protect you, especially if you have a newer iXX series Intel processor. They can PWN you at will. Another favorite trick is Man-In-The-Middle 'updates' of popular software.

* Possible 'prophylaxis' ...
a. Use older machines such as C2D and probably earlier C2Qs. (2006 and before).
b. There is some question as to whether AMD chips have been compromised.
c. Use Chinese open hardware/software Linux systems.
d. Use XP for Win. Most of the new spybots/encryptors use newer .NET libraries and die on XP.
e. Use a *real* firewall - something that REPLACES, and does not 'augment' the Win firewall (with programmable backdoors).

- These steps are useful only for those who have the *need* - occasional, or frequent - to be paranoid.

[dueda]

Building an old PC/NUC as proxy/firewall and attaching it to a newer PC/OS as daily driver could help, but won't replace discipline.
Set up a virtual sandbox to play/browse on a hardened environment, wipe and reinstall image every day.
Use privacy and security mods, apps and practices, apply UAC or a better tool. Keep strict control of Windows services and scheduler tasks.
Sounds like a pain, and it is, but consummer devices aren't made to be safe.

[ciaobellaxo]

I've used my VPN to get the torrent but I then disconnect to download the torrent. If I'm not using the VPN to actually download the torrent is that 'seen'?

[AncientRome]

I the united states, it's okay to download a file, but it's not okay to upload it.

You should always have a VPN running, at least when torrenting.


As for trusting VPN's, a few have outed their customers, some have poor protection and all VPN's keep logs even if they are just internal logs meant to prevent abuse.

[spikemite]

I've used my VPN to get the torrent but I then disconnect to download the torrent.  If I'm not using the VPN to actually download the torrent is that 'seen'?

A torrent file is simply a pointer to machines that actually have the file. There is nothing the cybergestapo can do to you for downloading THAT.

The crucial part is downloading the FILE with a torrent program ( uTorrent, Azureus, ktorrent. etc).
Because the torrent PTP protocols do not permit you to *just* download (without special and frowned upon modifications) - they are *designed* to BOTH upload and downoad at the same time.

So that all downloaders are also uploaders. Even before seeding starts.

So ALWAYS use the VPN with all aspects of the torrent program.

Always be aware that VPNs are not safe if the connection is interrupted. OpenVPN will often hang the connection, but not always. You will need to use additional scripts/programs to monitor your connection and terminate your torrent program if the connection drops, or else *BIND* the torrent program to the VPN (TUN/TAP) connection.  Some torrent clients like Azureus permit this, uTorrent does not. A VPN connection is not a proxy.

Another possibility is to bind the program to the connection with a firewall, but this can be rather complicated to the normal user, and methods will vary depending of the firewall used. (Just don use anything that requires the Windoze firewall - it is useless).

---

I've used my VPN to get the torrent but I then disconnect to download the torrent.  If I'm not using the VPN to actually download the torrent is that 'seen'?

Stay away from providers in Five Eyes countries. A good cheap provider in SouthEast Asia seems to be the best choice. I have had no problems with Singapore and Hong Kong (avoid China as Xi is trying to crack down on VPNs there - and yeah, i know that HK is China, but provinces can have policies that conflict with the central government).

[PhantomShadow7]

does anyone know the dirty details on just how "safe" you are using NordVpn? it seems to be the only "objective" or "non-judgemental" VPN according to every review and bit of information I can get.

I'm not a rabbid torrent user I like books I don't download music or computer software other than the extremely rare exception. I know movies ESPECIALLY ANYTHING made by marvel or DC and music ESPECIALLY ANYTHING made by big-time labels like Warner record or Sony will get you shut down hard.

I was also wondering if there was a honest-to-God torrent search engine that will consistantly give good results I have had a hell of a time finding torrents at times. (other than this wonderful site of course).