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Comment by complianceowl | Hacker News Reader

Guys, please educate me: I want to use torrents, but the thought of downloading something inappropriate by clicking on a deceptive link terrifies me (e.g., a download with the title of an action movie, but it turns out to be something else).

How do you guys handle that risk?

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If you're downloading "normal" stuff, then you aren't likely to run into an issue. Stick to reputable sites; reddit can help you figure out what those are.

What sites? Isn't the purpose of the software discussed here to make tracker sites unnecessary?

It's not the same thing.

What's not the same thing as what?

Just use reputable sites and run a good adblocker, like Unlock Origin.

Unless you're also afraid of clicking links on the web, you should be fine with torrents. Maybe you could not seed by default and turn it on only after verifying the data is authentic, that way you're actually only downloading and the analogy is complete.

Not the same. A link on a site has implied authority because of the domain. For example a link on Microsoft.com vs some shady looking site. There is some point of reference at least to judge.

I download plenty of files from sites I don't know and wouldn't consider trustworthy, visiting only the Microsoft.coms of the web is really restrictive. Domain-based reputation is useful, especially if I'm actively interacting with the site and giving it data, but visiting a shady domain shouldn't make someone terrified. It's not like the site will cough and give you a virus nowadays.

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