Download Torrents Anonymously with TorrentPrivacy
Privacy
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.
