this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2025
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Why?
From a security standpoint, it means tons of people are requesting unencrypted info from random domains that are possibly no longer controlled by the original owners.
This is just random speculation on possibilities, but somebody could maybe figure out the IP of a suspected pirate for example, setup a dummy tracker, wait for that IP to show up, and then compare any requested hashes against a database of known torrents. How legal and useful in court this could be would depend on the country, but it is a weak point.
At the other end of the spectrum, somebody might find some kind of security vulnerability in a popular client's tracker interface, and exploit that for malware purposes by setting up a fake tracker, but that's a bit more of a stretch.
I mean they could also just download a million torrents and record the ips of anyone who connects to them to leech, which is what they already do. This is why you use a VPN while torrenting, because you never know who you're connecting to.
I'd recommend always assuming the worst when connecting to torrent trackers. I'm not sure that most of us feel that the trackers we are connecting to are highly trusted providers.
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