6 replies to this topic

[dellawee]

I remember reading somewhere in the forums that AirVPN will provide information to law enforcement in the case someone is hosting malware or a botnet threw the service. I understand and respect this but does this mean that AirVPN logs what ports a user opens and for how long or does the person have to be "caught in the act"? I'm not suggesting that I'm doing to host a botnet or malware but I do download torrents from time to time and when I do I wait until I reach at least a share ratio of 1 (uploaded as much as I downloaded). This can causes a DMCA nightmare when I download from my home ip. I don't usually finish uploading before I turn off my torrent client so many times I'll continue seeding at a later time.

 

Effective seeding requires me to port forward so other peers can connect to my computer and request pieces from me this means airVPN must know that I'm using that port (at least when its live). Now lets assume air receives a DMCA request from one of the torrents I was downloading/seeding including the port I was using (I am no longer seeding the torrent but the port is still forwarded on my account) and for some odd reason the company took air to court would they be able to say definitively that I was the one who had that port open at that time? If so, would I be able to randomly swap around ports to mitigate this? (such as, User x has this port open since ...)

 

Off topic question: I opened a new account to use the forum. Is that against the rules? :/

 

thanks

[catyakspa]

​As long as you didn't provide personal information to Air when you signed up, I doubt that they would be able to give any substantial information to the company that sued them. Even if they did give your IP address, many courts in the US don't consider an IP sufficient evidence for prosecution (because of loopholes such as someone else using your Wi-Fi).

[dellawee]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I and probably a lot of people don't have an easy and cost effective way to purchase a vpn without giving some personal information threw the payment method. In the current situation with the laws I doubt it would be a big issue but there is no way to know how it will be tomorrow. The issue if what happens if you are the example used by the corporations to discourage the use of VPNs? In all reality the use of a VPN that logs what port you have open would be more definitive proof that you did it than if you weren't. (A valid argument would be having an non password protected network or it was hacked by someone else). I don't think this will be a problem for me specifically because I don't torrent that much but it could be significant to other people that expect that the VPN will protect them. It would be nice to see an official response so people know if this is a potential risk.

[LZ1]

Hello!

 

Air does the equivalent of using DMCA takedown requests as toilet paper. Except they're so useless that they can't even serve this function, so Air just ignores them entirely. Air doesn't log and it fully allows P2P - so torrent to your hearts content. Further, Air is based in Italy, which perhaps somewhat helps to protect it against the worst of the worst of the copyright cartels.

 

It should also be fine to open a new account, no worries.

 

I suggest you take a look at my guide, in the "community threads of interest" section, as I cover Airs views about logging, which they've posted about many times. I kind of find your logs and ports question a little confusing. I mean, Air has to know which account is associated with what request/port in a sense. But that doesn't automatically mean they know what you're doing, when you did it, who you are and would hand it over to anyone when asked - if even able to.

[giganerd]

What do you mean by log? Yes, it's known which user opened which ports.

[NaDre]

I doubt very much that AirVPN retains a record of ports you have asked to forward in the past. So you could change the port you use daily if you really wanted.

 

Some providers that choose a port to forward dynamically every time you connect might claim that that approach is more private. Is that where this is going? But the benefit would not justify the inconvenience in my opinion. And as I said, you could change it yourself frequently.

 

I suppose if enough people expressed a desire for it, AirVPN could implement a scheme to allocate a forwarded port every time you connect, for those who wanted it that way. But I doubt many people here would want that.

[Staff]

 In all reality the use of a VPN that logs what port you have open would be more definitive proof that you did it than if you weren't.

 

Remotely forwarded ports are not logged.

 

The information about them is lost when you un-forward (cancel) them. But you need to remember to do so because otherwise those ports will remain reserved to your account, for your comfort.

 

Kind regards