“This website lets you spy on what people are downloading”
By Jennifer Hale http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/security/this-website-lets-you-spy-on-what-people-are-torrenting/news-story/9deba3384f256ae405dcf95027bc07c6 A NEW website allows you to spy on what your friends are downloading from the internet — and they won’t have a clue you’re watching them. Iknowwhatyoudownload.com sneakily tricks your mates into clicking a false link which will actually track everything they download for 24 hours and allow you see it. It works by generating a false link for you to send to a friend, which can be anything, but the site recommend one they use frequently, such as Facebook, or a link to a news article. When you send the link, your friend will open it and it will take them to that site — or so they think. What they won’t know is that they’re actually being tracked from the moment they click on it. Iknowhatyoudownload will list every file they have downloaded for 24 hours. However, it only affects you if you use a torrent, a tool used by thousands of people worldwide to distribute data and files over the internet, such as films or songs. Most people think that torrents keeps your data secret — but it is attached to your IP address, a unique number used to identify your internet connection. Iknowwhatyoudownload looks at your IP address to collect the data, which will be available unless you use a VPN — a tool which hides your IP address by replacing it with a different one. If you don’t use a way to hide your IP address, everything you download via torrents can be monitored and made public by the website. Despite privacy concerns the makers claim it can be used for good — even boasting online that it can be used to catch people who download explicit images of children. Iknowwhatyoudownload’s marketing director Andrey Rogov told site TorrentFreak: “We’ve set up the site for promotional purposes and as a demonstration of our capabilities. “We are engaged in the distribution of information relating to torrent downloading activity to rightsholders, advertising platforms, law-enforcement and international organisations.” They also say they can help people whose data has been released on the internet without their permission, and in one case claimed to have a victim of revenge porn. Mr Rogov added: “For example, we received a letter from a girl whose sexually explicit video had appeared on the internet and had been widely spread over torrents sites. We helped her to remove public access to this content. “We also respond to inquiries from some organisations. For example, Northeastern University asked us about torrent downloads from their IP-addresses.” However news.com.au do not recommend you use the tool or send a link to a friend as it is currently unclear who is behind it. -- Cheers, Stephen _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
