Category Archives: Privacy

Should You Use a VPN When Downloading Torrents?

Have you ever wondered if someone is watching when you download a torrent?

The answer is categorically yes, even if you haven’t noticed any evidence of it. The snooping is indeed as undercover as it comes.

What you likely have noticed is irritating popup ads for VPNs on torrent sites. Then there are the flashing warnings that your IP address is exposed.

Sure, it’s an attempt to put the fear of god into you so you sign up with a VPN provider.

Nonetheless, is there some validity to covering your behind with a VPN when downloading torrents? Let’s explore that.

BitTorrent: Not Always Unethical

Before proceeding it should be said that LetMeBy.com doesn’t condone piracy. Moreover, it’s assumed the motives of the reader are pure.

Despite its reputation, BitTorrent distributes free content belonging to the public domain. Plus, it’s a protocol much like e-mail or www. So, don’t believe those who broadly label it as “bad.”

And then there are those many gray areas. Perhaps you want to download a video game ROM when you already own a physical copy. Or maybe you’d rather download MP3 files rather than ripping the music CD yourself.

Regardless, you have the ability and right to protect your privacy.

How BitTorrent Works

Downloading torrents isn’t as anonymous as it might seem. To understand why, we need to take a look at the basic mechanics of it.

The BitTorrent protocol is a peer-to-peer method of file sharing. It’s decentralized so there is no single point of failure.

So, when you start downloading a torrent you become an active participant in that system. Right from the top you help to serve the file. Thus, others can get the data you have so far. Then when the download is complete the file starts to seed, making you both an uploader and host of the content.

Who Can See Your IP Address?

During the process described above your IP address is accessible to others connected to the same torrent. So, it’s indeed plausible that an entity could monitor and record the IPs that connected to a torrent. Also, with apps like uTorrent you can view the IP of users quite casually by clicking on the Peers tab.

Savvy companies with big budgets use automated software to spy on users downloading their digital products without paying.

Another potential risk to your privacy is your internet service provider. This is the entity that can find out exactly who you are based on your IP. Although these companies rely on their users to maintain their business, they’ve clearly sided with other big business when it comes to copyright violations.

An online survey of 1,000 conducted by PCMag found that 25 percent of respondents named ISPs as the biggest threat to their online privacy.¹

Those in the Crosshairs

Copyright holders are most concerned about stopping the original uploader of a torrent, followed by subsequent uploaders. Furthermore, since all downloaders are also uploaders by design, there is no way to shirk responsibly for proliferating copyrighted material.

The film and TV industries in particular have been vigilant about preventing unofficial distribution of their video.

Torrents and the Movie Industry

Napster first pulled the genie out of the bottle in the music industry. And it hasn’t been the same since.

The film industry was similarly slow to adapt to technological change. Initially, increased demand for digital downloads and streaming were often met by unofficial channels.

But in this case, studios have done better in terms of enforcing copyright. Along the way film studios managed to utilize incredible technology to defend their turf.

Trackers are now embedded into popular movies which automatically find users who download their material unlawfully. Copyright infringement notices are sent via e-email thanks to cooperation with the user’s ISP.

Thus, downloading movies from torrent sites carries greater risks than many imagine.

Recently 3,400 Canadians faced the legal consequences of illegally downloading movies in Federal Court. The crackdown was launched by a Toronto law firm on behalf of U.S. movie production houses hoping to enforce their copyright claims.

Defendants have paid anywhere from $100 to $5000 to settle these claims.²

How VPNs Protect Users

When you use a VPN (virtual private network), your traffic is encrypted and secured to ensure that no one can spy on your activity—even when you’re torrenting.

Your actual IP address is replaced with an IP provided by the service. This provides anonymity since the IP in use is not associated with any one person.

Recommended VPNs

As there has been a surge in demand for VPNs, there is no shortage of services to choose from. Luckily even the best VPNs are affordable, so there is no reason to go for anything less than top-notch.

Read full reviews of the best VPN providers here. Or if you’re short on time, click on one of the links below. These are currently among the top choices out there:

Wrapping it Up

Don’t kid yourself. ISPs and corporations with copyrights to protect have a very dim view of torrent use. Downloaders are treated with the same suspicion whether their activity is legitimate or not.

This is yet another reason to consider employing a VPN for all your internet use. You may have fared well so far, but there is no telling who is watching your activity waiting for an opportune time to take action.

Sources:

Brave Browser: Like Chrome with Great Privacy (No Trackers)

After its release in 2008, just 3 percent of people used Chrome for those first few months. It’s been a steady move upwards ever since. Fast-forwarding to today, Chrome browser has obliterated the competition with 80 percent dominance in the market.

The people have voted with their mouse clicks and taps. Chrome is indeed an amazing browser backed by great tech.

So why all this talk about Chrome? Well Brave is a close relative to Chrome. To be more precise it’s built on top of Chromium, which is Google’s open-source web browser project. Most of the code that makes up Chrome can be found in Chromium.

Opposing Views About Trackers

The key difference between Chrome and Brave is philosophy. The founders of Brave believe trackers have overstepped reasonable boundaries.

In short, everything we do online is tracked and saved by corporations. Sometimes that data is sold to other companies too. And no, it isn’t done because they want to get to know us. They want to sell us stuff, and to do so more efficiently than their competitors.

David vs Goliath

Brendan Eich, co-founder and CEO of Brave Software invented the JavaScript programming language and co-founded Mozilla. Eich and company brought us the excellent Firefox browser, and has done it again with Brave.

With established leadership like that, Brave Software has a real shot at converting users to its browser. In fact, it’s already going swimmingly. A website called BATGROWTH is tracking the growth of Brave publishers. This is proving to be a huge year for the browser with no signs of slowing down.

How Brave Gives Back to its Users

Tech companies like Google and Facebook make most of their profit from ads. Traditionally users endure a barrage of advertising messages and in return gain free use of superb web software.

The issue with this model is that we all avoid ads like the plague regardless of the fact that ads are necessary when the service is free. Banner ads were once widely used and are seen less and less due to an effect called “banner blindness.” People learned how to divert their attention away from the noise and focus on the content they came for.

And as advertisers tried harder to grab our attention with videos, texts ads that don’t look like ads, etc., we found new ways to push it all away. Now users have ad blockers to deal with these unwelcome commercial messages.

It’s become an arms race between the user and the publisher.

With no incentive to view and interact with ads, so it’s no wonder the traditional approach is a struggle.

Thus, Brave rewards people with Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) when they opt-in and accept unobtrusive advertising. BAT is a cryptocurrency that can be exchanged for dollars or held if you believe its value will go up. Additionally, Brave has a built-in wallet to store these tokens.

According to Eich, the current internet’s current monetization system is “mature, but troubled,” suggesting that the human attention economy through the Basic Attention Token will eventually replace the need for fund-raising through sites like Patreon or through traditional programmatic digital advertising exchanges.
[NEWSBTC]

Once ads are turned on, by default every two hours a notification item appears at the top right of the browser window. You can choose to view the content or close this notification.

It’s not perfect since people can still tune out the advertiser’s messages. However, since the user is being compensated, the ads are no longer unwelcome. As with Brave’s model, it’s a choice.

Trackers and Ads Get the Heave-Ho

The ads publishers place on their sites are blocked by Brave right out of the gate. So are third-party cookies and trackers used to collect data on your browsing.

It’s pretty amazing to have this built-in to the browser. It works great. Plus, with much less bloat than extensions like Adblock Plus for Chrome. Third-party adblockers are notorious for hogging system resources. It’s good to see Brave addressed this inefficiency as well.

Making the Switch

If privacy is important to you, what are you waiting for?

Download Brave and give it a test run today.

If you’re a Chrome user, you’ll feel right at home. Also, if you like Firefox, it makes sense to check it out as well. Brave carries a lot of the vision over from Mozilla as both were founded by Brendan Eich.

This is a really exciting time for the web. Inspiring new projects that utilize blockchain are reinventing existing tools: in this case the browser. By using Brave you’ll be among the first wave of people to experience the new, improved internet, free of trackers and annoying ads.

Viva la revolución!

Substratum to Disrupt VPNs or Is the Dream Over?

It’s among the loftiest ideas in blockchain.

Substratum is building the foundation for a new decentralized internet. This is to be an open internet that cannot be censored by restrictive governments.

So, for those using a VPN or Tor to achieve anonymity online and to view blocked content, Substratum brings new hope for the future. Or If you’re a realist, it’s a new alternative to get around the frustrating deficiencies inherent to the web.

Of course, it takes more than great tech to make such a profound change in the internet. And while Substratum has talented people with the software chops, it’s their business ethics that may sink the ship. More on that later.

First let’s get a feel how Substratum works. After all, this project is backed by some game changing vision.

A Decentralized Web Hosting Solution

The established way to deliver web content across the globe is via a hosting service. Small businesses, corporations, and content creators alike rent rack-mounted servers stored in huge facilities, or in the case of many tech companies, operate their own facility.

It’s an effective system run by professionals. However, it’s centralized. This means a website can be blocked by targeting the IP address associated with the site. This is how ISPs, institutions and governments can potentially censor content.

Decentralized hosting has no single point of failure. Thus, specific sites cannot be blocked by simply targeting an IP. So, if one machine contributing to hosting the Substratum network (aka a node) goes down, the role is simply filled by another node. This is an internet hosted “by the people” with their home computers.

How the System Works

To keep their site on the Substratum network, an individual or business pays with Substrate (SUB) tokens. This is obtained by trading another cryptocurrency for SUB, or by exchanging one’s native currency for it.

Users are incentivized to run nodes. SUB tokens are earned relative to computing power and duration that computing power is used to support the network.

A Threat to VPN Services?

Using a VPN service is currently the best way to hide your identity online in terms of speed, effectiveness and user experience.

But free is tough to beat. And the Substratum economy directs all costs to site owners, not users of the network.

So, users seeking to attain greater privacy may gravitate towards the decentralized web over time. And this could put VPN providers in tough spot if Substratum is fast. VPN services are so affordable that many won’t bother to change their habits. However, if SUB succeeds it will take a bite out of their customer base.

Web Hosting Disruption

Substratum creates an interesting opportunity for techies that operate independently from a corporation. Anyone with computing power and an internet connection can contribute to the decentralized network. With the release of Substratum Node v0.5 software, everyone running it will be paid in SUB tokens.

However, it remains to be seen if this system will be profitable enough for hosting companies to participate in any capacity. It’s probable that home users will be undercutting professional web hosts, as new participants in the space will push the value of hosting down.

Thus, if SUB takes off, site owners will now need to think about hosting for both the centralized and decentralized web. Big players using cloud hosting services like AWS or Rackspace may be able to scale back on that and invest some hosting muscle into the decentralized web.

Uncertain Times for Blockchain and Substratum

The cryptocurrency bear market that occurred after the sharp highs of late 2017 to early 2018 took its toll on the psyche of many past zealots. A rain cloud formed over the collective sentiment of blockchain investors. Lower valuations of coins and tokens associated with blockchain projects led to greater scrutiny of the teams involved, and the projects as a whole.

In short, the notion that this would be the team to bring us the decentralized internet was more believable during the boom period. Many were riding high on euphoria when Bitcoin and Ethereum prices went parabolic.

Redditors expressed their disillusionment as the Substratum project couldn’t live up to the stratospheric hype. Substratum leadership has been criticized for promising their community the moon then failing to deliver.

Deceptive Marketing (aka Shilling) on YouTube

Ethereum holders particularly, emboldened by their seemingly perfect investment, were drawn to ICOs and new blockchain projects in late 2017. Substratum took advantage of this by ramping up their marketing activity. Allegedly getting various crypto YouTubers to shill SUB tokens was an especially questionable move. The shadiness was amplified when these YouTubers later became inactive or deleted their videos.

Substratum Delisted on Exchanges

Substratum was delisted on Kucoin in January 2019, and a month later it was also delisted from the world’s most popular exchange, Binance. This was nearly the death blow to SUB trading as almost 97 percent of the trading volume was on Binance.

Members of the Substratum team were accused of engaging in pump and dump schemes with their own coin. This activity would be illegal if it was a public company manipulating their stock price. But since we’re still in the wild west stage in crypto, the most that can be done is to delist tokens associated with unscrupulous projects.

It’s Not Over Yet

Although the hype and enthusiasm surrounding the project has dwindled, Substratum is still an active project with talented team members. And unlike many projects that appeared during the ICO boom, they have a working product.

The issue is, shady trading activities and overpromising have diminished their credibility. It will be a challenge to regain the public’s trust, especially due to the severity of the bear market that multiplied the negative effects. There’s still plenty of time for the tide to turn as the crypto market recovers. However, burned investors don’t easily forget and this turn of events has created many bitter critics.

While many failed projects pulled an exit scam and completely pulled the rug from underneath ICO investors, Substratum did not. So, this is a signal that Substratum is in this for the long haul despite errors in judgement by management.

Substratum tokens were a horrible investment for the many that jumped in during all-time-highs. Nevertheless, if the team manages to deliver a decentralized internet in the future, perhaps this sacrifice was in some ways worth it.

Privacy Showdown: Firefox vs Chrome

Web Browser Giants

Among many browsers available today, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are the two most popular and prominent web browsers. This was achieved because they both deliver a fast, seamless user experience, whether you are browsing for business, carrying out research, or binge-watching foodie videos on YouTube.

In 2004, Firefox was launched, four years before the initial release date of Chrome. Mozilla runs Firefox, which is a non-profit organization advocating for a “healthy” internet. Mozilla was spawned to build an internet in an open-source protocol that gives everyone access where security and privacy are factored in. This is unlike Chrome’s privacy policy, which engages in storage of your browsing data locally except when you are signed into your Google account, enabling the browser to send the same information to Google.

Chrome also allows 3rd-party websites to gain access to your IP address and use cookies to access information tracked on the site. So if privacy is a priority for you, be aware of the browsers that support websites that enable other companies to track your online activities. You may want to switch to a browser that does not use your data at all and also will not to sell it to advertisers.

Firefox’s private browsing mode also has a feature called “origin referrer trimming,” where the browser automatically deletes the information about which site you’re coming from when you land on the next page. It is obvious that since Mozilla’s motivations are fundamentally different from Google’s, the Firefox developers have leeway to make these privacy-first decisions

If you are not sure which browser to choose for privacy and other factors, additional points to consider are below:

Protecting Your Privacy

The Firefox privacy policy specifies what kind of data can be collected, and what the data is used for, while on the other hand Google is basically a data collection company. So, if you are concerned about Google knowing every aspect of your browsing habits, then Firefox may be a better option.

Mozilla made a call-to-arms in an effort to promote online privacy for internet users in 2014, which is fighting for greater data privacy — ensuring that people know who has and are accessing their data. Mozilla believes in giving the public the choice to decide where their data goes. This is a plus for Firefox which runs the open-source program, so we don’t have to worry about a corporation trying to monitor our movement and online activities we carry out.

Chrome Extensions That Are Also Firefox Extensions

Firefox supports Chrome extensions. Google Chrome, sometime ago was the leader in extensions. However, with Firefox 48, Mozilla provides stable support for WebExtensions, which now allows developers to create extensions once and have them work in multiple browsers – a cross-browser API. With WebExtensions, Chrome extensions are installed by Firefox after Chrome Store Foxified is installed.

Firefox has several unique extensions that are unavailable to Chrome users but Chrome has a larger collection of extensions. One example is Tree Style Tab. This extension lets you organize tabs into a tree-based hierarchy and turns the tab bar into a sidebar that can be shifted around at will.

Synching Browser Data on Your Devices

On the issue of synchronization, with Firefox, all the content on your PC can also be seen on your mobile phone or other devices. You can also use Google’s extensions to get more out of it.

Personalisation Options

You can download and install completely different themes to change the browser’s appearance. This is in addition to tweaking the general appearance and moving features around. You can even create a mirror image, having a similar feel of other browsers with FXChrome and MX4

Unlike the Chrome browser, every one of them looks closely identical, even while it’s running on different devices and operating systems.

Speed versus Battery Usage

Chrome processes webpages faster than Firefox, hence using more of your system CPU than Firefox. Greater usage of CPU generally results in faster load times and smoother performance. However, this is not without a cost. Slightly quicker processing comes at the expense of battery life. Arguably, Firefox is still pretty snappy and is therefore better with respect to battery life since it consumes less power. From the task manager, you will easily identify that several fields are exclusively dedicated to Google browser; this reduces the performance of other open tabs, whereas Firefox allows about three tabs per process. It’s a subtle difference with light use, but power users with top-notch machines will appreciate Google’s approach. Do you value speed over battery life? The choice is yours.

Cloud Data Storage: Actually Private?

Your data is stored on 3^rd party servers when you use Google Chrome. If you use Firefox Sync features, Firefox stores your private data on its Sync server as well. However, since the data is encrypted locally only your install of Firefox can decrypt and read it.

Tab-Heavy Users: Hungry for RAM

When you do not have many open tabs Chrome uses less RAM than Firefox. Firefox on the other hand scales better than Chrome the moment you reach about eight tabs or more. So, Firefox is more advantageous for heavy users who are likely to regularly have 20 or more tabs open.

When using Chrome, you are not likely to see each one when many tabs are loaded but while using Mozilla, it has a horizontal scroll that allows you see what’s on screen all the time.

The two applications show different RAM usage when tested in opening multiple tabs, with Firefox showing better performance with more tabs open.

The Verdict

While Chrome and Firefox perform the same basic service, the browsers’ developers approach to their design is quite different in some ways because one organization has to serve an end determined by other organizations, and the other doesn’t. That means Firefox’s privacy mission is in conformity with its users interest. The browser is explicitly designed to help people navigate the convenience versus privacy conundrum.

Note that many Firefox browser extensions are basically built for Chrome. Some of these are notorious for causing the browser to crash, although Mozilla also builds extensions you can use exclusively on Firefox. After the Facebook scandal, Firefox released an extension called the Facebook Container, which allows you to browse Facebook or Instagram normally, but prevents tracking from Facebook, to show its transparency policy.

Ultimately, the choice of browser is up to you and whichever one you choose is determined by your preference and interest. That being said, Firefox is technologically inferior to Chrome in some ways but in terms of privacy Mozilla’s browser takes first place.

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Graphic: downloadsource.fr

Top VPN-Ready Routers for Your Home Network

Once the domain of networking specialists in a business setting, routers with VPN capabilities built-in are now accessible to everyone.

There are other options for enabling a VPN at the router level. However none are as elegant for the average home user or small business.

You can buy a router from FlashRouters with business-class DD-WRT firmware installed for you or install it yourself. However going this direction isn’t recommended unless you are comfortable with the added complexity it will add to running a home network.

For most people it makes more sense to choose a hardware solution with simple, intuitive firmware that is VPN-ready out of the box.

VPN-Friendly Brands

Many of the top router brands are lagging behind by failing to add VPN features to their products aimed at consumers. Asus and Synology are the exception. Both are consistently releasing feature-rich routers that allow you to easily connect to a VPN service.

This guide focuses on the brands that offer VPN features across their product line. This empowers you to choose a specific router based on your needs. And to make things easier a “top pick” was chosen from both Asus and Synology camps.

Router You Need vs. One You Want

Accessing the Internet through a VPN uses up more of the router’s resources than a regular connection. Consequently, pay special attention to the CPU specs. A dual core processor running at 800 MHz or greater is recommended. This is to ensure the router CPU doesn’t bottleneck the performance of web-browsing, torrents, and downloads.

You need a capable router if you plan to use a VPN, but if taken too far you’ll overpay for a router with horsepower you’ll never tap into. If you live in a very large house, have a big family and/or ISP offering a bleeding-edge connection speed, going high-end may be worth it. However, you don’t need one of the beefiest models just to connect to a VPN.

Asus Wi-Fi Routers

With competitive prices, a wide selection of routers, and deep VPN capabilities across the board, Asus is a good place to start your search.

AsusWRT is the stock firmware preinstalled on Asus routers. It supports OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP encryption protocols.

Although not as cutting-edge on the software side as Synology, Asus knows hardware. They’ve been a major player in computer hardware since 1989.

Asus RT-AC68U (AC1900) (800 MHz – dual core) [Amazon]

Asus RT-AC3200 (1.0 GHz – dual core) [Amazon]

Asus RT-AC3100 (1.4 GHz – dual core) [Amazon]

Asus RT-AC5300 (1.4 GHz – dual core) [Amazon]

Asus RT-AC86U (AC2900) (1.8 GHz – dual core) [Amazon]

Asus GT-AC5300 (1.8 GHz – quad core with AES-NI) [Amazon]

Top Pick: Asus RT-AC86U

Despite its playful exterior meant to appeal to gamers, this is a serious router. It’s powerful enough to cover very large homes and brings cutting-edge tech to the masses.

Asus boasts blistering data transfer speeds up to 2900 Mbps. The Wi-Fi signal is transmitted dual-band (2.4 + 5 GHz) via the latest 802.11ac MU-MIMO technology. That’s an impressive feat considering the reasonable price point.

Inside there’s a 1.8 GHz dual core processor, 512 MB of RAM, plus 256 MB of flash storage.

Synology Wi-Fi Routers

Synology is primarily known for their excellent NAS solutions. Nevertheless the company managed to impress tech enthusiasts with their first router, the RT1900AC, and they’ve built upon that foundation by adding the powerhouse RT2600AC and then mesh-friendly MR2200AC.

The easy-to-navigate Synology Control Panel allows you to painlessly setup and connect to a VPN service. There is comprehensive protocol support, which includes OpenVPN, PPTP and L2TP/IPSec.

This interface is like a sleek mini-OS dedicated to your router. And it’s a fresh yet familiar approach.

Synology RT1900AC (1.0 GHz – dual core) [Amazon]

Synology MR2200AC (717 MHz – quad core) [Amazon]

Synology RT2600AC (1.7 GHz – dual core) [Amazon]

Top Pick: Synology RT2600AC

The RT2600AC is Synology’s flagship. It improves on their first router the RT1900AC in every way. A formidable unit and with four antennas, the gargantuan appearance is matched by good performance.

MU-MIMO and the latest 802.11ac Wave 2 standard is supported, giving the router a top speed of 800Mbps and 1733Mbps on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios respectively.

It’s powered by a dual core 1.7 GHz CPU and has 512 MB of DDR3 memory.

Wrapping It Up

Home users are ready for routers with VPN features, but open-source firmware solutions like DD-WRT may not be ready for them. That’s because technical know-how is still needed to gain the rich feature set.

Asus and Synology have managed to balance ease-of-use with advanced features. So while many are focused on router hardware specs, the importance of superior firmware can’t be ignored.