Is uTorrent Safe or Not?

Torrents are nothing new for most people. Almost all of us at different times have used torrents to download various paid content for free, including various movies, music, books, programs, and more.

Therefore, over time, the market for successful torrenting tools has been filled with various offers or tools. The most popular of these tools is BitTorrent along with its uTorrent client. It is the latter that has established itself as a reliable and multifunctional tool.

Previously, we’ve talked about Dropbox privacy. If you missed it, you can read the available information here.

uTorrent shows few ads, speeds up file downloads, and allows users to manage bandwidth. In addition, users can view the content during the download.

However, did you know that using a torrent site is illegal in many countries? There are laws that prohibit the download of pirated content. So, the criminal prosecution will be both for the torrent site owner and for the person who downloaded any information from it.

Interesting topic for discussion, isn’t it? Therefore, today we propose considering this issue in more detail and finding out whether is uTorrent safe or not.

Previously, we looked at Imgur safe usage. Read it right now and be protected.

What is uTorrent?

uTorrent is one of the popular Bittorrent clients. It is designed to use minimal resources when providing services, unlike larger Bittorrent clients such as BitComet and Vuze.

BitTorrent, Inc., now RainBerry, Inc., is an American company that operates on a peer-to-peer protocol and continuously develops uTorrent and BitTorrent Mainline, two clients for this protocol.

Files that are transmitted via Bittorrent make up a huge part of the daily Internet traffic. According to some official data, the monthly number of torrent users reaches 170 million people.

Advantages

Doesn’t require a lot of memory or a high-performance processor.
Fast file upload speed.
A small load on the central server, it is distributed equally among users.
Support for any OS.

Disadvantages

Minor ads.
Built-in OS package.
Used for sharing files, many of which are protected by copyright.

Working principle

The main thing you should understand is that when you download a file via torrent tracker, that file is not uploaded anywhere. It’s just that a special list is created which contains a description of the file and the address of its placement.

When any user gets your file list and runs it through their torrent client, the program will automatically detect where the file is located and start downloading it directly from your computer.

After the user starts downloading your file, he will automatically become a participant in a complex process because, at this moment, he will begin to transfer your file to the next user, like a relay race. So, the file is already distributed by you and another user; then there will be three, four, etc., each automatically participating in the file transfer. The more people transferring this file, the faster the download speed will be.

This is achieved by transferring the file in parts. For example, a file is downloaded via torrent by 100 people, and another user joins and starts downloading.

With the help of a torrent program, he can download pieces of information from hundreds of users.

For example, suppose the speed is low when downloading an entire file. In that case, the program will select a certain piece of information and go to the next user, who has a higher speed, to download another piece and so will look for the most comfortable version of the jump, dividing the file itself into a huge number of parts.

After all the information is collected, the program will collect them into one single file and the download will be completed.

While working with torrents, you may come across a couple of interesting names, the meaning of which is not clear — these are “seeds” and “peers.”

Seeds are people who have already downloaded a file 100% and voluntarily continue to share it with users.

Peers are people who have downloaded less than 100% of a file, but are already distributing to other users the parts that they managed to download.

Even in communication with internet users, you can often hear the expression torrent tracker, too, do not be afraid — these are ordinary internet sites that publish lists of torrent files with a brief description, characteristics and pictures.

Is it legal to use uTorrent?

Today, a long-standing dispute continues about the legality of torrent sites. Many internet users claim that downloading files via torrents is illegal, while others do not see anything illegal in this process.

In fact, if you look at the uTorrent program from the software side, it is a 100% legal tool. However, if we are talking about uTorrent from the position of a tool for downloading a pirated file, then there are some questions about its legality.

It is quite legal to use uTorrent if you upload or download files with the permission of the owner. Therefore, any user of the network can download the file without worry.

The main problem occurs when the user wants to download a file that is protected by copyright. And to get access and download it legally, you need to pay. However, using a torrent you can do it for free. In this case, these actions are considered illegal.

uTorrent privacy

To understand the legality of uTorrent once and for all, we need to familiarize ourselves with online torrents’ privacy.

So, if you know something about internet privacy, you can easily understand the privacy matter of torrents. For instance, when you browse a site or engage in any other activity on the net, several operators track your movements. This can be government, commercial companies, internet provider, site owner, etc.

To bypass these people and companies, you should care of your online security. For this, you can use various proxies of VPN services.

Did you know that your torrent activity can be recorded? It works the following way: you download the necessary file via uTorrent or any other site, this time you are involved in the storing of online activities’ history. It means that your privacy on torrent is insecure. At any moment, uTorrent can give the necessary information about your activity to the government or the telecommunications company.

So, if you want to download the legal file via torrent, you can forget about threats. This is absolutly legal action. But to be honest, most people use uTorrent to download some files for free and avoid the copyright issues.

Is uTorrent safe to use?

Earlier, we’ve already mentioned the threats associated with the use of uTorrent. However, it is important to pay attention to the following points:

Malware and viruses. Torrent sites are a simple and fast way to download several viruses or malware to your computer. Therefore, hackers often use torrents for cyberattacks.

All existing and dangerous malware types are here.

Legal issues. Since your online activity on a torrent site is monitored by some organizations, they may claim copyright infringement if they notice that you have downloaded or uploaded protected content. In this case, you may receive a DMCA notice or even a fine from the studio that owns these rights.

Be anonymous during internet surfing.

Personal data leakage. Many internet service providers have a negative attitude to the use of torrents. Therefore, cases of termination of contracts with users who use torrent sites can be found more often. Other internet service providers may even provide your data to commercial organizations or government agencies if you use torrent sites for illegal actions.

Use the working way of data protection.

How to use uTorrent safely

If you are looking for the best method of torrent access, you can use a VPN. Using it, you may easily avoid the privacy concerns associated with your torrent.

You can find a list of trusted and reliable VPNs in this article.

Data Internet Security Surveillance Tech Tools