Download Torrents Anonymously with TorrentPrivacy
Written by Ernesto on August 12, 2008Privacy has always been a major concern for BitTorrent users and there are only a few ways to remain anonymous. By using a secure connection, as the new TorrentPrivacy tool offers, you can bypass almost every firewall or traffic shaping application, while making sure that nobody can see what you’re downloading.
The TorrentPrivacy software has been developed so that anybody can use it, from BitTorrent novices through to experts. TorrentPrivacy uses a pre-configured version of v1.7.7 uTorrent, so there are no settings that have to be entered manually.
It pretty much works straight out of the box. First you have to chose a connection point - at the moment they have servers in Europe, USA, Canada. The closer the connection point is to your true location, the faster the speeds you will get from the service. Then, after you’ve chosen a connection point, just click connect and the program will connect to the server. The connection is made through the SSH protocol with 128bit encryption, which prevents traffic shaping and keeps your traffic ambiguous to prying eyes.
TorrentFreak briefly tested the application and it worked surprisingly well. People who are used to uTorrent wouldn’t notice any difference, besides the fact that they are using version 1.7.7 instead of 1.8 which was released earlier this week. The download speeds we got were decent as well, perhaps 5% less than normal, but that’s to be expected, and is acceptable for an SSH tunnel.
Alex, who runs Torrentreactor.net and TorrentPrivacy, told TorrentFreak: “We started the TorrentPrivacy project at the end of 2007. The idea was to give torrent users an anonymous BitTorrent service from a party they can trust. TorrentReactor has been online for approximately 4 years, and we believe that when people see that TorrentPrivacy uses ns1/ns2.torrentreactor.net as DNS servers, they won’t have any questions about a possible government setup of torrentprivacy.com.”
When we asked Alex about his motivation to start the project, he said that he wanted to make it as easy as possible for BitTorrent users to be anonymous, and get the RIAA and MPAA off their backs. “We don’t like the situation where two organizations from the USA believe they can rule the world. The Pirate Bay showed them that other countries have other laws and American laws don’t work outside of USA. We want to be the pain in their asses, and allow users to download what they want without fear of a sudden door knock.”
One of the possible downsides to the project is that you have to use their client, which is Windows only. For now there are no plans to offer SSH accounts separately, Alex told us. They do offer some other goodies though. As TorrentPrivacy only secures you while you’re using torrents, they have also developed a web proxy, listing 300 torrent sites which you can visit anonymously as an extra service.
Sounds great, right? Yes it does, but unfortunately the service is not free. TorrentPrivacy currently has three payment options. $2.95 per week, $9.95 per month and $99.95 per year. I guess it’s up to you whether you think it’s worth it or not.
Previously: Critical Vulnerability Discovered in uTorrent
Next: EA Choose BitTorrent for Warhammer Online Distribution
98 Responses
So your saying this is a nice feature add on released in a version of uTorrent that’s just been exposed in a statment saying it’s open to exploit…
plus that sounds a sucky price, It’s about same cost for Xbox live and a web proxy doesn’t give that much value.
The idea is worth a try.
does it hide your ip?
Let me get this straight.
You have to PAY MONEY for a service that’s based on a bittorrent client that I have been telling people is insecure for YEARS.
IT’S OWNED BY BITTORRENT INC, PEOPLE!
This is just ten kinds of stupid.
All it really is in the end is an SSH tunnel, with a pre-set-up client.
I can set up my own damn client, thank you very much, and buy an SSH connection from a reputable person. And I sure as hell wouldn’t use utorrent.
TorrentFreak, seriously, think things through before you write articles on them.
For just a little bit more than that I’d rather get a seedbox.
Dont touch it on what.cd unless you like disabled accounts
Not useful service, i never had a single warning from anti piracy.
downloading every day LoL
does it hide your ip from peers?
@8: Yes.
“TorrentFreak, seriously, think things through before you write articles on them.”
And give up on being dugg? Cmon dude, blog spam is more important. Afterdawn reported on this hours ago…shame.
Sounds like another company trying to make a profit of piracy.
Its commercial = its useless.
Nice and professional of them not to have clean urls.
If they charged and they were a non-profit corp, then maybe we could believe some of the BS about wanting to help the community etc..
As its stands they are just another company exploiting people’s technological ignorance for a profit.
How long will they last anyway? If this isn’t what a court calls ‘facilitating piracy’ then what is?
I am not in the mood to read about stuff that I can get for free. Keep your advertisements and articles separate.
To people saying this is bullshit:
What the hell? These guys are offering your cheap SSH tunnels through which to torrent. They’re not putting a price on it because they’re trying to make money off of you guys, it’s because the bandwidth involved is monumental! 500 users could easily reach 100TB+/month, and that kind of bandwidth doesn’t come cheap. Let’s also not forget they need the bandwidth to substain multiple users all downloading at close to their maximum speed.
If you don’t want to use their services, then don’t, but don’t put them down for offering anonymity for those who are willing to pay for the bandwidth.
If you prefer you can always rent your own dedicated server and proxy through it… But I can assure you it will cost you more than 10/month.
Disclaimer: I am in no way related to the parties involved, I am merely stating my point of view.
ditto. you took the words out of my…ummm…keyboard
@14
“These guys are offering your cheap SSH tunnels through which to torrent. They’re not putting a price on it because they’re trying to make money off of you guys, it’s because the bandwidth involved is monumental!”
If they aren’t doing this to make themselves rich, then why is it just a run of the mill private company - what happens to the profits?
the more of these services the better, it’s just a matter of time before they get shut down or become compromised..
What needs to happen is a more decentralized network. You know, where there is a network where people download through the network, and anybody can choose to set up a machine as a “node,” and where anybody who downloads through it also becomes a “node.” Something like that.
“For just a little bit more than that I’d rather get a seedbox.”
Seedboxes cost quite a bit more.
“What the hell? These guys are offering your cheap SSH tunnels through which to torrent. They’re not putting a price on it because they’re trying to make money off of you guys, it’s because the bandwidth involved is monumental! 500 users could easily reach 100TB+/month, and that kind of bandwidth doesn’t come cheap. Let’s also not forget they need the bandwidth to substain multiple users all downloading at close to their maximum speed.”
Yes, 10$ a month is quite low if the bandwidth is unlimited.
papertrail
They have news from the future http://www.torrentprivacy.com/index.php?mod=news&id=20
If your ip is hidden no one can connect to you.
This service is cheaper than what i currently pay for my VPN . Ty for the post Ernesto. I’d wait til the 1.7.7 client is patched or they support 1.8 though b4 i gave it a try.
Hey, another tool in the online privacy tool belt is always a good thing is it not?
JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
Not free? I’m not interested then.
Hotspot Shield can hide your IP, but i’m not sure about torrents
@23
..
So is it 100% secure from RIAA and MPAA?? Could somebody explain exactly what an SSH tunnel does?
Thanks.
Tiep Nay
If a firewalls blocking bittorrent then surely its going to block ssh.
Even if for some reason it hasn’t, “hmmm, wonder what that 50 gig of encrypted trafic is???”
Seedboxes are more expencive yes, but if you go with someone like ovh, its not that much more in comparison to what your getting.
Their website needs caching, it’s dead right now.
I never understood why companies attempt to market themselves towards pirates.. they’re pirates for a reason, they don’t spend money to get what they want.
no trial period?? like… 2 weeks or sumthin?? i think that would be perfect to trial, decide and see whether or not it would be fair to pay or not, BECAUSE if it was, and was quality, i would, otherwise i don’t wanna dish out a good 20 mins of my time to configure my own damn firewalled ssh tunnel. As my tie is more valuable that what its asking lol ANYWAYS i hope they make a trial period or sumthin, that would help uptake and migration AND adoption
This is a tangentially related by important thing to note: The Pirate Bay is not blocked in China. It is important to note that even in countries where it is blocked, P2P has much more potential than the HTTP internet in spreading free speech and getting around censorship.
Torrents have a great potential, but only if torrents are able to be passed around freely. Security and anonymity for the peers is also a very important point.
@34
Indeed, what is more important is contribution rather than profit. File-sharing is not about paying to get something back - it is about contributing to the community.
@23: You’re an idiot and you’re wrong.
mirror??
Website is down for the count.
The 1.7.7 version will be fine as the client is made to connect to their servers and pass information through them. Anyone sending you data is really sending it to them and then it goes from there to you. So a hacker can’t get access to you. Your I.P is also unknown as they won’t be willing to give it out as stated in the article. The best picture to draw is like a bridge
Maybe some of you cool people have no letters from anti-piracy groups, but i have had 5 letters come to my home from 2 different ISP’s. Hiding your IP is quite useful and i will probably try this service and compare it to my current services, btguard and relakks. (Both work decently)
@ 34.
That’s totally not true, the thing about file sharing is even if you buy it, you can always get it faster from this method most of the time. So in short, even if the person downloads, it can be other factors in why they did.
1. Wanting what you bought fast, usually you have to wait for it to ship and depending on the shipping method or where you live it can take some time.
2. Wanting to see if your computer can run it. There aren’t always demos of things and sometimes they aren’t even fully as optimized as the final product.
3. It’s available and it’s fun.
I won’t rule out that some people will just download, but have an open mind about it at least.
It never fails to see the ignorance of users who read the news… it isn’t like TorrentFreak is ramming this down your throats, it says at the end… Its up to you whether you think it is worth it or not… I commend TF for atleast letting us know about this…
Jesus you people are ignorant.
@34
agreed. if you are going to pay for something why not just get it legally and not have to worry about anything?
I would never recommend a service that is strictly for torrent use.
SSH tunnel means encrypted traffic from machine A (yours) to machine B (theirs); then your internet activity appears as if you were machine B.
Problem is, if machine B gets compromised/confiscated, it will be easy to reach you.
A decentralized solution like TOR is much better, but it can’t handle the heavy burden of bittorrent traffic yet.
The definite solution would be a bittorrent like protocol with anonymity and encryption built in.
Perfect Dark and Share are anonymous p2p client/networks, but work more like gnutella than bittorrent; and force insane speed and storage requirements.
“TorrentFreak, seriously, think things through before you write articles on them.”
so… torrentfreak shouldnt of written a news article about this?
torrentfreak is a p2p news site.. and the article they posted was p2p news if im not mistaken. Think before you post to be honest.
in regards to the news article it self… i think there are cheaper ways to hide your identity :S
my balls itch ;(
Muhahaha site is dead already and no trial at all to even see if its worth it… Lame!!
Epic failure!!
centralization which is what this does is never good. P2P is decentralization. Putting all IPs in one database is bad. I agree with the person who mentioned that we need “nodes”. Someone who is English speaking needs to make an english version of the Share P2P app which uses nodes and is the best anonymous P2P made to date. Basically, with this method, the file is encrypted until it completes on your harddrive and is de-coded. Only way to find out what you have is for someone to be lurking on your harddrive and knows the folder that you are downloading too. Why hasn’t this been done yet? I’m guessing people have been paid off?
I hope this has got noting to do with Torrent Freedom ( http://torrentfreak.com/torrentfreedom-offers-anonymous-and-unrestricted-bittorrent-080208/ ), just read the comments on that article, was proven to be a complete scam.
I just paid for the ‘gold’ Torrent Privacy service and got the confirmation e-mail.
But when I logged-on to download the program I just got the message:
“This service is available only for Gold users”
SNAFU - Not a good start.
I’m curious, how do services like these escape requests for subscriber information that generic ISPs are bound to abide?
P.S. I’ll throw in another vote for more decentralisation. ;)
Interesting things not mentioned in the article:
- What type of payment do they offer, is it possible to pay anonymously
- Do they retain the IP you use to login (internal IP)? Do they retain the IP they assign (external IP)? If so, how-long? Are they able to cross-link the account infos with the connection infos (internal or external IP)?
- Are they legaly obliged to hand out either connection data (IP+Timestamp) or user data (Account name, billing data, maybe even real names or addresses) if requested by local authorities (f.e. police etc.) or even privat organistation (like RIAA, GVU etc.)?
use
your-freedom.net
How can they offer torrent privacy when they can’t even afford login privacy. Their site does not offer SSL (HTTPS) logins. At least get a free Comodo or CA certificate. It’s better than nothing.
Nice, i decided to use this service. Actually, i received lawsuit not so far. F*cking RIAA…
If you want to use this to pirate music and films, think again: this provider is not above the law and has to provide data to the authorities. And since you have to pay, there is a neat money trail between you and the company. Nothing gained.
@42
Indeed. Perhaps TF should add a disclaimer to each post, or just put it at the front page, “don’t like? don’t read.”
Indeed, I think that that a “tor” or “Share” version of BitTorrent is far safer. Basically, people can set up their own nodes, and all the peers automatically become nodes, so instead of downloading directly, people download through a peer or dedicated node, or possibly through several, along with automatic encryption. In addition, each node should be within a distributed cache, so that people can store data on anybody’s machine in an allocated space, making everybody an automatic seeder of any random torrent if somebody else wishes to make it so. It would be preferable if people can connect even when they are on different torrents, so that they can still download through them.
Good service, and the nay-sayers, really wtf? Bittorrent users need more options for security, good security is worth money and this sounds like it’s fast and reliable as well
@61
Considdering that multipal users have reported that the site is down, that they have no ssl’s and that one user paid and was not able to use, how on earth does this sound reliable?
the more we take apart this p2p protocol the more insecure users become.We become vulnerable.The Anti-P2P Scene is sowing seeds of doubt.
P.S There is one goal.Divide and Conquer.
Offtopic… is TPB down?
Message: No se pudo conectar al servidor de caché // could not stablish a cache server connection
@63 i tried a few hours ago…i think so
TF needs to learn to write the price at the start. I just wasted about 2 minutes reading this to find out that this costs..moneY?
I agree on what you already said about this event. Thanks for supporting for this kind of things in our lives.
@62
It is debate, debate is healthy. No, I do not agree that every “tool” for BitTorrent is equally useful. Sure, sometimes debates on which one is better than the rest can sometimes be distracting, but criticism only makes people think and want to do better things.
I do not think it is so much doubt as it is just that “there are some things they should have done that they haven’t.” You understand what I mean?
too bad Torrentreactor.net sucks i would like to see this on other trackers.
Ditto what JT said - The more varied and scattered services like this out there in the wild, the better. They’ll each have their weaknesses and strong points, and consumers will suss them out accordingly.
Considering Relakks is still f’d for some reason and can’t re-up accounts, its interesting to see new options like this popping up ever 30 days, in all kinds of different countries.
There is one huge issue with this service which most people seem to be overlooking…private trackers.
Most private trackers use your IP to make sure you’re actually allowed to connect to their tracker, this makes that system unworkable.
Linux client?
I use Perfect Privacy VPN since a year with RPF and could recommend it.
If you idiots are going to keep implying that Bittorrent, Inc. is the son of satan, here’s a nice idea for you: OFFER SOME PROOF OR SHUT IT!
You are all butt pirates.
People can still connect to you, its just forwarded through a server, so they recieve the servers ip, not yours…
Radical civil disobedience. What we need to do is to set fire to the RIAA buildings, smash their windows, destroy their homes. We need to go to the political party meetings and disrupt them. Disrupt the meetings of the democratic party and the republican party.
You think that illegal activities won’t do anything? Why, yes, it will. Look at the “Battle of Seattle.” We need to do more radical stuff. Years have passed, and it has shown that the “nice” methods of the EFF are ineffectual and can’t do anything.
Anyone know how to obtain a pipe bomb? It is necessary that we all plant a bomb in the RIAA and destroy their building.
By the way, I will seriously BOMB the headquarters of the RIAA. What the RIAA have been doing is MORALLY WRONG and UNACCEPTABLE for FAR TOO LONG. Copyright as it currently is is UNACCEPTABLE and is essentially MEDIA CONTROL and a controlling of what people do with their own property. How could giving away a copy of a CD be “stealing” anyways? That is just ridiculous, essentially since you are supposed to OWN the CD when you buy it, and you are supposed to be able to do whatever you want with it. Copyright is a GRAVE invasion of copyright and personal property rights. Copyright needs to be changed. Nonprofit uploading of copyrighted materials needs to be legalized. But the RIAA here is UNACCEPTABLE and they all need to DIE. I am not talking about laws here; I am talking about morality. So I will BOMB their building. They seriously deserve no life. When the bomb explodes, I will be happy that all of those bastards are in hell.
@77
How can violence solve anything at this stage? It can only make us look bad. What is really needed is for us to show the public why copyright law is ridiculous as it currently is. You know, show just how unfair the RIAA is. Violence can’t show that what the RIAA is doing is wrong. After all, it can only harden the opinion of those against us.
why not just dl this program like we do the rest and get it for free. or hack into their systems and steal a password. lol
oh. honor among thieves.
Pricing is insane ssh proxies are easy for most to come by plus it uses a version of uTorrent that every botnet with a clue is targeting
Why can’t we just start using BT over i2p?
you can use PeerGurdain 2 for free. and it is hide of ip address
Whats up with all the bitching? It sounds like an easy to use, cheap, and reliable service. Not everything is free in the world. Use it or don’t use it, but don’t bitch at the company for charging a small amount for a quality service.
I doubt there is Linux version… :(
I will stick too https://www.flashback.name/
@78
The only thing that can solve any and all problems is violence.
:)
If you kill your enemy it does not matter if u look bad or not, you have won!!
The win is what matters, if u don’t win your a loser.
Violence FTW!
It’s really idiotic of the commenters saying it’s useless etc.( I’m curious if 8 year old kids started to read TorrentFreak. )There are other services like this one (btguard,relakks..), and they are serving because there is a need,so a market for this. We are reading RIAA/MPAA lawsuits all the time, and some of us wouldn’t want our ISP or employer etc. to find out what we are downloading or uploading.
@19, @81
Last I checked, i2p came with a bittorrent client.
Can someone else pls. tell me how the service is ?
Even post no. #51 ..
Im planning to get this, and i would like to know if it actually helps ..
And im especially worried abt. the money trail and the data handover part ..
Perhaps we should adopt the tactics of the suffragettes - extreme, radical, civil disobedience. It’s not like conventional methods would do anything, and public opinion doesn’t really matter at this point - what really matters is yelling as loudly as we can. We can do this through serious disruptions, like in the “Battle of Seattle” about 10 years ago. It is not so much about courting the public opinion as it is about getting noticed, and showing that we have a strong will.
I’ll stick with Linux, Azureus, and moblock. Too expensive with no linux support.
At last I’ve tried the service. It’s easy use, and the speed seems almost the same.
I must say that the service works.
screw you… triyng to get money from pirates… you should be killed for that.
PIRACY SHOULD BE FREE… DON’T PAY FOR PIRACY.
anyone else who used this and has any comments ?
alright i hear everyone’s plights but get realistic if you’ve been coming to torrentfreak for any amount of time you know that torrentfreak’s reporting is often quite questionable toward being fact based.
With that said is this ready out of the box in utorrent v1.77 or is it a pay for srvc.
These two details seem quite contradictory as is most of this info found at torrentfreak.
I just purchased a month’s subscription and it’s working amazingly.
They say every log is erased, only your perosnal details from, say, the page where your enter your credit card is kept if you commit some sort of ridiculous crime. Just like any other credit card service.
Sounds legit to me.
very vefy very goood thinds
I agree, paying monthly subscription for stuff like this is terrible
well if you pay them with a credit card they already know what you are doing, you just signed over all your nfo, and where you live
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