Hotspot Shield & Torrenting

[letmnesee]

Hypothetically, would an ISP be able to tell if someone is torrenting copyrighted material while using (free) Hotspot Shield or other free VPNs

[Boxoizoi]

Hypothetically, would an ISP be able to tell if someone is torrenting copyrighted material while using (free) Hotspot Shield or other free VPNs

No, all depending on the level of privacy the VPN service provides.

Most VPNs will provide logs of user activity, if requested by the ISP or local government.

 

Just the ISP looking from the list on their side, no, they won't be able.

[SMURG]

No, all depending on the level of privacy the VPN service provides.

Most VPNs will provide logs of user activity, if requested by the ISP or local government.

 

Just the ISP looking from the list on their side, no, they won't be able.

This, although it's important to be aware that ISPs don't generally give a damn what you use your connection for; they only give you crap for torrenting if the person who owns the copyright says "this guy's pirating our stuff, u better make him stop or we'll sue you for it". In that scenario, even with Hotspot Shield they'll just contact them, ask them for a log of your activity, which they will then provide, and then they will send you a "stop pirating" letter.

[letmnesee]

No, all depending on the level of privacy the VPN service provides.

Most VPNs will provide logs of user activity, if requested by the ISP or local government.

 

Just the ISP looking from the list on their side, no, they won't be able.

 

 

This, although it's important to be aware that ISPs don't generally give a damn what you use your connection for; they only give you crap for torrenting if the person who owns the copyright says "this guy's pirating our stuff, u better make him stop or we'll sue you for it". In that scenario, even with Hotspot Shield they'll just contact them, ask them for a log of your activity, which they will then provide, and then they will send you a "stop pirating" letter.

 

 

So what would normally trigger your ISP to request these logs from a VPN service? Huge upload rates? Huge download rates?

[Boxoizoi]

So what would normally trigger your ISP to request these logs from a VPN service? Huge upload rates? Huge download rates?

Unless they got reports from a specific company, probably won't happen.

[SMURG]

Unless they got reports from a specific company, probably won't happen.

Again, this. P2P traffic is such that everyone can see everyone else, so companies can track torrents then send a list of offending users to the relevant ISPs. They just grab every user on that torrent and contact the ISPs that provided them with that address. Even if that takes them to Hotspot Shield instead of you, again Hotspot Shield will just say "well actually we were just rerouting this guy's traffic", and then give them your own address so they can contact your ISP.

[letmnesee]

Again, this. P2P traffic is such that everyone can see everyone else, so companies can track torrents then send a list of offending users to the relevant ISPs. They just grab every user on that torrent and contact the ISPs that provided them with that address. Even if that takes them to Hotspot Shield instead of you, again Hotspot Shield will just say "well actually we were just rerouting this guy's traffic", and then give them your own address so they can contact your ISP.

 

Are the people on this list only the people who are seeding the files? Or can you get off that list be deleteing the torrent data?

[SMURG]

Are the people on this list only the people who are seeding the files? Or can you get off that list be deleteing the torrent data?

They can see anyone uploading or downloading that file. They can't see who has it saved, only who is sending it in either direction - so you're only 'exposed' whilst you are downloading or uploading - although if a torrent is tracked they'll just grab every user who ever uploads or downloads it for the duration of the track.

[ygohome]

Are there any VPN providers that have been forced to hand over IP details of users through any level of order? I read about Hidemyass doing it but that was for a hacker into Sony – not just the odd torrent!

 

BTGUARD and PrivateInternetAccess state they do not keep logs – I’d be interested to know if anyone has ever seen different?