Torrenting itself isn’t illegal but let’s be honest. You are most likely doing something illegal (depending on where you live) if you are torrenting. And while we certainly do not encourage illegal activity, we care about full privacy. Therefore, we should not care about what you do, as if we do, do we really care about your privacy? Maybe you have the right reason to do it. Maybe your life depends on it.
Either way, if you are torrenting and want to do torrenting safely, this article is for your!
Better safe than sorry.
This post isn’t just about the solution, but it’s about what the solution must provide and not provide, and what you need to do, as there’s more than one solution, but not all are the same! If you want to do torrenting safely regardless of where you live, you need to follow every single step, and you need to read everything that is stated in this post. Otherwise, everything will be for nothing, and you will be potentially exposed in a certain way!
A VPN is a virtual private network. What does it do? To put it in the purest form possible, it’s a layer between your devices and the internet that converts everything into encrypted content meaning that whatever you are downloading and torrenting is encrypted.
When using a VPN, your IP address is also different.
But providing a VPN service is not enough. A website can look great, and the service itself might be of fantastic features offered at a great price like with PrivateVPN which was chosen as the best value VPN service by BestVPN, but you need to look at the further details to make sure a VPN service encrypts you fully or just partly.
First of all, the higher the encryption, the better. Most likely nobody will even attempt to go past encryption as it takes too much time and money, but the more encryption present, the more protected you are.
PrivateVPN comes with a 256-bit encryption code with 2048-bit DH key which is encryption on the level of the military.
But encryption means nothing if there’s a loophole present which is why we advice reading through every single piece of the terms of service before using any VPN service.
At PrivateVPN we do not provide long terms of service with complicated and confusing phrases that can make customers not aware of what they are signing up for. We get right to the point.
There’s no such thing as “may use” when it comes to PrivateVPN.
You either are using or aren’t using somebody’s data.
If a company can’t state that they aren’t directly, it means they absolutely are using your data. And that is a problem as if the government pressures that company, they might release that information that they have on you, and if you want to do torrenting safely, that is not an option.
This is what PrivateVPN’s terms of service mentions:
“PrivateVPN does not have access to any other information about customers apart from those reported at the customer's registration on PrivateVPN’s website, i.e. a valid e-mail address, username and password.”
We do not store any information whatsoever that could be used to harm you. And as a Swedish company, this is not even an option for us as we just legally cannot do that. Swedish laws differ a lot to the likes of the United States which is known for lack of privacy.
Whatever you do, make sure to read the full terms of conditions, and if you are confused, do not choose that VPN service as there’s most likely a loophole to encryption in that case.
One simple piece of data is enough to turn safe torrenting into a problem for you!
It makes sense that if you are torrenting you also most likely would prefer to get a VPN for free. And the good news is that there is a variety of free VPN services. But you shouldn’t use them. A VPN is something you want to pay for. Trust us.
We aren’t saying this so you use our service but because this is a post about how to do torrenting safely.
If you are looking for a free service, sure, go and use one, but forget about torrenting safely.
Free VPN services also need to make money and not only are they often overloaded due to the number of users trying to access them meaning you get much slower download speeds, but they usually also keep information on you and your usage meaning that you aren’t safe.
For instance, Onavo owned by Facebook states that their service collects data and uses it for advertising purposes. A very famous example of data being given away is by the company called HideMyAss when in 2011 the FBI arrested the hacker Cody Kretsinger after HideMyAss worked with the Police. Sure, the hacker did do something more than just illegal, but if you really care about privacy, you still keep him safe or rather keep him safe by not storing any information on him.
You most likely won’t go to jail for torrenting, but there are fines and problems of all sorts that you can face depending on where you live. Hence it’s better to do torrenting safely.
Oh, and you don’t want to give away too many details when registering either if you want to do torrenting safely.
If you are on a VPN site and find that the registration is too long, leave. A VPN service that requires you to give too much information away is suspicious. A VPN service is meant to keep your safe, and the less info there is about you, the safer you are.
PrivateVPN only asks for your email which is your username and also a way to recover your account if you forget your email and your password. We don’t ask for names, age, addresses or anything else.
And if you are worried about providing your email address, create a new one.
Oh, and of course, we also accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for making your payment entirely untraceable, not that it matters as we do not have the information about what you are doing in the first place.
You torrent. Your download finishes. You turn off your VPN. You are safe.
Great dream.
Not the reality.
See, a VPN only keeps you safe as long it’s on. The file might have been infected on purpose. The torrenting client you use might also be sending data after you finish downloading. If you really want to do torrenting safely, you need to keep your VPN on, forever.
And a vital feature to keep it on forever? Kill switch. PrivateVPN offers an IPv6 Leak Protection system. If your VPN service stops working for whatever reason whether that is you turning it off by accident, the service will kill your internet preventing leaks of all sorts.
Whether torrenting on a phone or a computer, if you want to do torrenting safely regardless of where you are a VPN that does not give way any information and prevents leaks is vital.
Torrenting? It’s legal. Your downloads? They might not be. If you want to protect yourself and to do torrenting safely, you need to read every word of this article. It’s not enough to read some parts.
If you miss out on a certain part, you might not be safe!
Ready to join the best VPN for torrenting and in terms of value? The lack of information asked for makes it a super quick sign-up process. We have a great deal right now! It won’t last forever!
Written by Michael Smolski.