submitted 1 year ago by SailorsLife@lemmy.world to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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I have read some stuff about how if you are logged into like your google account while on your VPN you have pretty much given yourself away.

So first, is that accurate?

I just got a mullvad vpn and am using their browser. Created a new lemmy account. And I shut down my other browsers before connecting to the vpn to be on the safe side. Is that necessary? Anything else I need to do to sail the high seas anonymously and safely. I am looking to start finding all the movies that never seem to be on my many streaming services, but want to be safe about it. Thanks

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[-] stifle867@programming.dev 26 points 1 year ago

If your threat model is companies detecting your movie piracy then what you're doing now is fine. Just ensure any torrent program is bound to the VPN interface and also make sure you're blocking any trackers if you do happen to log into Facebook, Google, etc as they will be able to track your movements around the web (not that they're looking to enforce movie copyright)

[-] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

Is there a VPN that binds easily to android? I had been using Flud and cyberghost VPN but did not have them bound. I just let my cyberghost vpn membership lapse so I could get a new VPN for tormenting, but haven't picked one yet. I torrent from my phone quite a lot and not just my pc.

[-] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

In that case enable the block connections without VPN under the VPN settings in network

[-] stifle867@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

As someone else pointed out, Android has a built in kill switch so you would use that setting for system wide VPN.

[-] CyberSeeker@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Why are you running a VPN? If you are simply shielding your internet activity from your ISP, Google won’t give a shit where you sign in from.

If you are browsing to shield your identity, you want to be fully disassociated with any non-secure browsing habits. If this is your use case, even if you are using discrete internet accounts, tracking cookies are common enough that, you would still be identifiable from your browser fingerprint. It all depends on what your risk factors are, and how much you want to spend to mitigate them.

[-] SailorsLife@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Most people point out I am not worth their effort to trace for a few movies. But I am curious, if say I use a specific browser when on the vpn and only use a few very specific accounts like this one which I don't use when I am off the vpn. How do they identify me.

[-] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 year ago

I’ve used Transmission + PIA for several years now. In that time frame, I’ve had three separate ISPs (due to moving a few times). I received a total of one DMCA notice in the last ~10 years, due to unknowingly running Transmission with the VPN off. Since then, I keep the advanced kill switch turned on.

My Google account is always logged in. I only use Facebook for their Marketplace, which is seldom.

I have no issues, at all. Keep in mind, you’re small potatoes.

[-] myersguy@lemmy.simpl.website 9 points 1 year ago

Not sure that transmission supports it, but other torrent clients (qbitorrent, deluge) allow binding the torrent client to your VPN interface. That way, you literally can't torrent on anything but your VPN connection (even if a killswitch fails/the VPN isn't running)

[-] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 year ago

I’ll look into it, thanks!

[-] June@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Any suggestions on where to learn how to do this? I’m sailing on a Linux machine if it makes a difference.

[-] wolfshadowheart@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

It's usually in the network settings of the torrent client. Usually listed with "IP interface binding" or some such.

Qbittorrent has it as a dropdown menu with a list of available IP's to use, as well as an option to set it manually.

[-] TCB13@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Here: https://lemmy.world/comment/5269089

[-] TCB13@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Not sure that transmission supports it

Yes transmission does support it, however if you're running in Linux you can also just restrict it to run on the VPN IP or interface. Read more here: https://lemmy.world/comment/5269089

[-] TCB13@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you're running Transmission on Linux know that I can be set to only use the VPN IP, there's also another good way to implement a kill switch: https://lemmy.world/comment/5269089

[-] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago

Very interesting! I’m running on Mac and I have a dedicated IP with my VPN, I bet I could do something similar. Thank you!

[-] TCB13@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

In you case setting bind-address-ipv4 and bind-address-ipv6 to your VPN IPs should work. According to this under macOS settings are stored in $HOME/Library/Preferences/org.m0k.transmission.plist. Not sure if the format is the same tho and don't forget that editing a plist on macOS isn't just always just editing a text file, it might be encoded and cached by the system, do your research.