Music

Think You Downloaded All That Stuff Anonymously? Think Again.

Leave it to the Russians.  A site called You Have Downloaded seems to keep track of all those torrents of which you seem so fond.  Unless you were using some kind of proxy or otherwise know how to obfuscate your true identity, everything you downloaded could be in full view of…well, everyone.

When Torrent Freak investigated, You Have Downloaded had information on 51 million users and 103,000 torrents.

Why not entertain yourself to see if someone has been, er, keeping tabs on you?

 

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38025 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

7 thoughts on “Think You Downloaded All That Stuff Anonymously? Think Again.

  • Alan – it's an interesting site, but it only tracks IP addresses. Since you often get a new (dynamic) IP address every time your modem/router/or machine connects, the downloads that the system shows are NOT necessarily yours… so if you see "your IP address" has downloaded a lot of weird stuff, rest assured, it wasn't necessarily YOUR IP address at the time.

    Reply
  • DO NOT LOG IN TO FACEBOOK THROUGH THAT SITE!!!

    They may be able to get even more personal information that way.

    Reply
  • Yes, because we, er, I mean Facebook has none of your personal info. I swear we don't sell it either.

    Reply
  • Aran: ISP's time know WHEN you had a specific IP address. So, even though you may be seeing what someone else downloaded when they had the same IP as you, your ISP could easily figiure out what YOU downloaded when you had that address.

    Reply
  • The file it suggested I downloaded was wrong.. I think its searching keywords from our history and using our IP for the location? I don't know what it does but it looks like a joke site.

    Reply
  • If you read thru the site you will find out it is a joke, it says so itself and explains how it is meant to scare people.

    Reply
  • It is actually a joke. Just look at the link in the bottom left corner that says "Don't take it seriously"

    These guys are pretty clever. The Privacy policy and contact pages are very funny too.

    Reply

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