Need some straight answers about torrent privacy

[janlafata]

I'd like to get some straight answers about using torrents and wtehwer or not I'm ever at risk of being tracked by my ISP or someone else. I have uTorrent and have encryption enabled. But I also use Blocklist Manager to do my part to prevent being tracked by the MPAA or someone like that.

First off, from what little I know, my ISP, Time Warner, does not track their customers, nor would I imagine that they would let anyone from the recording or movie industry track you, although I'm not certain...does the recording and movie industry need your ISP's permition?

But getting back to Blocklist Manager...If my ISP is not blocking or tracking me, and I've enabled encrytion in uTorrent, do I really need it?

[Tomtetrollet]

The IRAA and MPAA and whatnot do not need a permit from your ISP to hunt you down. I'd say that you should use the best protection (don't make anything sexual out of this now boys) you can have at any time, there's always a chance that you get caught...

But the only thing these companies do is send a letter to your ISP saying that you're filesharing and then your ISP probably tells you to quit... and that's about it.

[Cabalo]

well, there are some basics to take in consideration.

1. private torrent sites. if you are really afraid of taking the chances when downloading, when joining a site, the harder to get into, theoretically the safer it is to be spotted.
2. encryption, both on the site and on the client. Vuze's RC4 is currently the strongest encryption available. Heard deluge had a pretty good one too. At the tracker, enable HTTPS browsing if allowed/possible.
3. ipfilter.dat / blocklist / peerguardian / etc, i always use them, though some say it won't help you much. anyway, i feel safer having them enabled.
4. encrypt your HDDs where you keep the downloaded stuff.

there are probably more, but right now i'm quite tired to think of other ones.

[lamp13]

i would just like to add one line to ^
keep in tune with updates and happenings of the torrenting world !

[Funkin']

I've grown a bit more safety conscience these days with my downloading. As Cabalo mentioned, the harder the site is to gain membership to, the safer I feel. So I've only been downloading from these type of sites.

Also, I never download some kind of brand new big movie from trackers. I download these from either rapidshare or newsgroups(actually I do most of my downloading through these two methods nowadays).

Follow the advice that has been given so far and you should be ok.

[murker]

You could always get a seedbox to be even more sure ;)

[Cabalo]

You could always get a seedbox to be even more sure ;)
...IF he knows how to encrypt his accesses to his seedbox, uses SSL and a scheme to FXP to his own home FTP server. :whistling

[The_Martinator]

I would just like to say that all that's been said is true, though I'm a noob at the encrypting stuff, I just have it on in my BT client.

Personally I find it that sites that are harder to get into, put more emphasis on security, but that's not always the case (I think, I always try to find some info about the site I'm joining). At any rate, you should get into private trackers if you want to be safer.

[janlafata]

Ok now I've got lot's more questions !!! So your saying that if I'm going to download movies, use Vuze over uTorrent, as it has better encryption? I have downloaded it and will try it out soon. Is it hard to set up the encryption on it or is it automatically encrypted?

Also...Are ipfilter.dat and Blocklist Manager two different things? And do you no of anywhere that has some good instructions for setting up BLM? I say that because I installed BLM some time ago but I completely forgot how I set it up! I'm not sure I even set it right to begin with.

And the setup intructions I've seen over at Bluetack are a little steep, in my opinion!

[DanielleD87]

just use a condom while p2p and you'll be fine
http://www.nevilshute.org/PhotoLine/PLD-1941-1950/Graphics/tn_145_s_1950_pipe.jpg
father knows best