Anyone who’s downloaded files from the internet has probably asked themselves: "Does my internet provider know which files I am downloading?".
The question becomes even more serious when it comes to downloading torrents. After all—if you download something illegally, you may end up getting sued or imprisoned.
But before you decide against downloading torrents for the rest of your life, you need to understand what they are. More importantly, you need to know whether your ISP is snooping on you.
Let’s see what torrenting actually is and whether your ISP knows exactly what you are downloading.
What Is Torrenting, and Why Is It Controversial?Torrenting, in simple terms, is an alternative way to connect to a network and download files. Conventionally, we download files from a centralized server. For instance, when you download an app from Google Play Store or the Apple Appstore, you are downloading data from a single source.
Torrenting doesn’t rely on centralized servers. When a user wants to download a torrent file, they connect to a “swarm” of users that are uploading/downloading the file through the BitTorrent network. Everybody participating in the swarm is called a peer.
When you connect to a swarm through a BitTorrent client, you simultaneously download multiple torrent pieces from other peers. When all the pieces are downloaded, BitTorrent clients assemble them into one single file.
Although many organizations use torrenting to lessen the load on servers, the general public relates torrents with piracy. Sadly, many do use torrents to download pirated content which makes the protocol quite controversial.
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to end this controversy since piracy due to torrenting is really hard to get rid of. Due to the nature of torrents, copyright holders find it difficult to take down pirated content. So, rather than taking legal action against every offender on the internet, companies target a few individuals to set an example.
Furthermore, the only way copyright holders can go after users who are pirating content is with the help of internet service providers (ISPs). This has made people question whether their ISPs can actually see the files they are downloading.
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