Your Downloads Are Being Tracked

[Bec]

Report from Instant Fundas

Everybody knows BitTorrent is not anonymous. But a new website that publicly keeps track of everything downloaded from specific IP addresses could spell trouble for the scores of people who download copyrighted music and movies from the Torrent network.

The site http://Youhavedownloaded.com keeps a huge database of millions of IP addresses and the many million files downloaded from these addresses. The site claims that it tracks about 20 percent of all public BitTorrent downloads. People who visit the site are immediately shown their download history if their IP address is on record. In addition, they can also search for files or IP-addresses to find out who’s downloading what. To date, Youhavedownloaded has a database of more than 52,902,000 users and 113,200 torrents that made up 1,955,000 files.

Obviously, for those who have dynamic IP-addresses the service is going to show content that someone else has downloaded. Also, many homes and businesses use routers that employ network address translation (NAT), which can hide multiple users behind a single public IP address, so that a single address listed in the database may reflect file-sharing activity of multiple different users.

“We don't bother ourselves to separate dynamic IPs”, said Suren Ter, one of the site’s founders. “The site is just for show. However we have time-stamps. 3.3.3.3 might be a dynamic IP - however it belonged to a certain person at 12:12am 12/12/2011. Besides DHT allows us to get a user's machine fingerprint.”

The site was built as a proof-of-concept to make people aware of the public nature of BitTorrent downloads. From the website’s privacy policy:

Baby, this is the Internet. There is no such a thing as privacy around here. You are sitting in the privacy of your own house, clicking links, reading stuff, watching movies — it seems like you are pretty much alone. But smart nerds are watching you. They watch your every move. You are not human to them. You are a target — a consumer. And, most importantly — a potential consumer!
This magic word opens a hunt on you.

It sure has been a wake-up call for many. Suren Ter said he’s received an email from one guy who claimed he downloaded stuff only because his grandmother was ill and he wanted to watch a Harold & Kumar movie to cheer himself up. Another kid wrote requested him to have his information removed because he was downloading porn and was afraid his parents would find out.

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Now I'm thinking the Adult Porn Industry could setup something similar?

[MaxxAdult]

This is good! Any continued efforts to stop content thieves, porn or mainstream is awesome!

Was so happy to see this when hitting the site!

"Hi. We have no records on you."

LOL

[HunkyLuke]

I just checked and got the message:
Well, you are in the clear. But look what others do

Hopefully this will make some downloaders hesitate before they willingly break the law next time, or even better, hopefully it will lead to some high profile arrests and charges being laid.

[Mansized]

They had me down for a couple of things..really weird too..cuz the movies they said I downloaded (non porn movies) I HATE! Someone is posing as me! Damn posers!
With dynamic ip addresses..how the heck can they think they are really going to be that accurate?

[Mansized]

Ok..here's one of the things they say I downloaded (apparently an album by "Scissor Sisters-Night Work"..apparently a "gayish" band which I just watched on utube and have to say not bad. Now I *AM* tempted to download this! LOL) Anyone else heard of them?

"This more hardcore Scissor Sisters outing is, really, their fourth: singer Jake Shearscorrect decided to scrap an album's worth of songs and decamp (profuse apologies) on a sabbatical to Berlin, where the unbridled hedonism of that clubbing metropolis restored Night Work's frisson.

To further emphasize the point, this less shrill and better-crafted album features a superb Robert Mapplethorpe photograph of the taut buttocks of dancer Peter Reed. Night Work feels, then, "like Aids never happened" (Shears's words), recalibrating Scissor Sister's ooh-er-missus romp-pop into a more forthright, sexualised, synthetic and satisfying form. Abetted by Stuart Price (Madonna), Scissor Sisters's default Eltonian honky tonk fades out in favour of artfully deployed electronics. "Running Out" is pure early 80s pop while the pert "Something Like This" borrows little electronic droplets from Kraftwerk."

[HunkyLuke]

I like Scissor Sisters, I have their first two albums. To me, they sound like a modern day Elton John.

[Mansized]

I like Scissor Sisters, I have their first two albums. To me, they sound like a modern day Elton John.

U always were more hip than I!

[ponyboy]

This all started when the war criminal g w bush pushed throw the patriot act. It gave the US government the right to spy on all us citizens and all people around the world. In Oct. 26, 2001 all e-mails are kept, all chats are saved, all the web sites you visited are tracked and whatever book you take out of your library the records are kept. It also gives the Treasury department the right to track all financial transactions.



The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the "Patriot Act") is an Act of the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. The title of the act is a ten letter acronym (USA PATRIOT) that stands for Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001.
The act, a response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, dramatically reduced restrictions on law enforcement agencies' ability to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial, and other records; eased restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United States; expanded the Secretary of the Treasury’s authority to regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals and entities; and broadened the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts. The act also expanded the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which the USA PATRIOT Act’s expanded law enforcement powers can be applied.
On May 26, 2011, President Barack Obama signed a four-year extension of three key provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act: roving wiretaps, searches of business records (the "library records provision"), and conducting surveillance of "lone wolves" — individuals suspected of terrorist-related activities not linked to terrorist groups.

[HunkyLuke]

U always were more hip than I!

Its easy for me as I am still 29 :pinkylove:

[Mansized]

Its easy for me as I am still 29 :pinkylove:

BITING lip BIG TIME!

[PFLJayden]

BITING lip BIG TIME!

I'm in agreeance with that one

[x0pa]

it only has one for me, as im a very impatient pirate and have moved to 10MB/s usenet

btw this is how i watch tv from the US i hope to end my cable subscription in a few years and rely on tv downloads but we'll see

[HunkyLuke]

BITING lip BIG TIME!

I'm in agreeance with that one

i'm gonna have to put the smack down on both of ya :catfight:

[tag]

torrents are not good for downloads anyway, too many viruses

[BabyMaker]

I wouldnt go there, because if i am not in their databases i will be after I visit Sorry for those of you that and and looked Being the biz we are in and just in general a lot of files can look real creepy to the outside world and even illegal when they are not so dont need that hassle