if I went to a library or something, and torrent a file, nobody would be able to tell who it was as its a public place and the library couldn’t be held accountable. thoughts?
They could also see your MAC address and lookup which vendor that MAC address matches to.
They could then use the cameras there to see who has a laptop that matches and possibly identify you that way.
I’d say if you are going to do it use a vpn no matter what.
They may still lock you out or block torrent traffic, or possibly block your vpn from working. So make sure the vpn kill switch is on in case it suddenly stops working.
I doubt very much anyone would go to all that trouble to catch someone illegally downloading movies. Technically possible though.
damn. could you use a mac address spoofer?
In this day and age everyone should be using a MAC address spoofer, especially on Public Wifi, many of them track mac addresses and impose limits based on time and data usage.
If you’ve ever been using public Wifi and noticed it got slow or stops working after a time, that’s why. Some will even be up-front about it by asking you to pay for it after a time.
on windows, use tmac
on linux, there’s one called macchanger…Yeah, depends on what os you are on tho
I don’t have experience with them, so I’m not too sure how they work or how reliably they work.
Mainly I just use the one built-in to settings of Gnome, I never torrented on public wifi (most public wifi I’ve used is too slow to download without chewing up all the bandwith) but the MAC address randomizer seems to work very well, even with the ones that use timed paywalls (where they let you use it for a time then lock your MAC address out and ask you to pay).
Our local library makes you log in to use the wifi, so theoretically they know who is doing it and the terms of use you agree to would probably cover them.
If you are using a VPN they wouldn’t know what the traffic is and most public wifi has pretty strict usage caps so I doubt it would be worth your while.
If you use public wifi without a VPN…
If you use public wifi without a VPN…
Hey, at least nobody gets pregnant!
If you use a VPN, it doesn’t matter if you use your home network or public wifi… At that point if they track you down to your VPN account, if either you provided personal information, or you used identifiable payment, you could be tracked down. Only difference is, if your VPN keeps certain information, you could be tracked down to the network you connected from, where the public wifi would offer some protection.
VPNs aren’t a magic solution to guarantee privacy, they’re a tool with multiple uses, but using one could decrease your privacy in certain cases.
Use a vpn and you’ll be fine, otherwise if someone savvy is in charge, they may have blocked torrent protocols, or may block your device if they notice. Ditto on Pon’s comments about possible usage caps. Or time caps before having to log in again. Either of which could be worked around if you’re able to spoof your device MAC address to connect again.
I’ve gotten around this with TCP:443 as they usually just expect UDP.
If they don’t block torrents, sure. A lot of people here are like “but they can see your MAC address” but I’m skeptical that Starbucks would hire a private detective to track you down by MAC in response to a civil copyright complaint…
Possible, but personally if I was running a public WiFi it’d have outbound port restrictions and app checking to avoid liability for just such a reason… So in theory no they couldn’t tie it to you with certainty unless it was one of those things like ‘use your library ID to log into the captive portal’, but a decent admin wouldn’t allow it.
For the purposes of practicality, you’re probably safe so long as you don’t have to log in using credentials tied to you. They simply aren’t going to care enough, and will likely just put up some network restrictions if they get a letter from the isp.
But for the purposes of security, yes, you can absolutely be identified. For one, if your device Mac address isn’t spoofed, they can just see what device you used, and skim security footage for someone using it in the right time frame. Even without that, they can just see who was there for the amount of time you were connected, and find you that way. Especially if you do anything that would identify yourself while there (like use a library card).
Just use a vpn