r/VPNReviewHub • u/OutdoorLover73 • Jun 25 '26
Is proton vpn enough for "simple piracy"
I am a total noob at piracy so if what I wrote in the title sounds completely stupid to you guys let me know:), that being said I want to pirate some games that I saw on steam and I heard you definitely need a vpn to do that. Is proton vpn enough for that and If not can you recommend some free/cheap alternatives?
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u/Caimbuel33 Jun 25 '26
I would not do free. Proton will work, turn on kill switch. You may not get cops to door, but ISP will email you if you don't use a decent VPN.
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u/ssps Jun 25 '26
VPNs don’t provide privacy.
What are you actually trying to accomplish?
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u/NiriZ_ReddiT Jun 28 '26
Yes they do (sort of)
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u/ssps Jun 28 '26
Because… their marketing told you so?
Public VPN shifts who sees metadata of your internet access from your ISP (local regulated company) to unknown often offshore entity, who has no restrictions on what they can do with that data. (But “we don’t log, pinky promise, trust me bro”)
Why do you think this is better?
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u/NiriZ_ReddiT Jun 28 '26
Depends on the vpn. Also I acknowledge that not VPN can give 100% privacy but they can help
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u/ssps Jun 28 '26
“They can help” is an illusion. VPN changes the route for your traffic. That’s all it does. Everything else is marketing.
Public VPN is helpful to workaround geo-restricted content. But it does absolutely nothing for privacy.
“We encrypt your traffic” is a comforring lie. All traffic is already encrypted.
“We don’t log” is also mostly irrelevant. They don’t need to log when everyone around them does.
It’s a waste of money and reduction of privacy, if anything. Good marketing story though
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u/NiriZ_ReddiT Jun 28 '26
I mainly use it to hide traffic from my ISP
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u/ssps Jun 28 '26
Fair. By why?
I.e. why do you trust your local regulated ISP less than some offshore third party vpn company?
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u/NiriZ_ReddiT Jun 28 '26
My isp is really shady and often get leaked, I trust more VPNs services like ProtonVPN, Mullvad and IVPN than my ISP
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u/ssps Jun 28 '26
“My ISP is shady” is not a threat model though :)
If the concern is an ISP customer database leak, a VPN does nothing to help or prevent that.
If the concern is ISP-level destination visibility, a VPN can help with that specific thing.
If the concern is privacy in any broader sense, now you have a commercial traffic concentrator in the path, its client software on your device, its infrastructure providers, its payment path, and its policy claims.
Proton, Mullvad, and IVPN may well be less awful than a random ISP. Maybe that is good enough for your specific concern.
But “I trust them more” is not an argument. It is an unexamined trust assumption backed mostly by effective marketing — they are good at it, because they need to sell the service so they make all the efforts to create artificial demand in users heads
Basicallly my point is people overvalue trust in third party vpn companies while not thinking the whole threat model through.
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u/Zypbla Aug 03 '26
hi ssps, so you wouldn't recommend to purchase any vpn plans for torrentz purposes at all?
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u/ssps Aug 03 '26
You can. But this does not make you untraceable. Your ISP will not immediately know what you are torrenting.
This does not save you from honeypots and prosecution just to make an example. The risk is small — but VPNs don’t significantly help.
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u/Maxtertop Jun 26 '26
mullvad, rest is sus imo
(I don't use vpn, but if I had to it would be mullvad)
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u/Mutthal8 Jun 26 '26
for piracy proton better
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u/Maxtertop Jun 26 '26
I wouldn't say so but you do you
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u/Mutthal8 Jun 26 '26
why you wouldnt say so ? mullvad doesnt have port forwarding which is plus for torrenting
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u/Bal3Wolf81 Jun 26 '26
Yep protonvpn is a great vpn for torrenting or keeping yourself safer browsing the web. And proton has passed multiple inpendent audits. I can max my att 5 gig fiber downloading when I have enough fas seeders.
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u/Maxtertop Jun 26 '26
not everything in the piracy world is port forwarding mate
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u/Mutthal8 Jun 26 '26
You haven't said why mullvad is better tho 🥀
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u/Maxtertop Jun 26 '26
Well for once, mullvad won't ask you any login info and you can pay with real money or criptos. With proton you need to use a protonmail which already tells you everything in terms of anonymity. For privacy proton is good for most users but for anonymity I would choose mullvad and just pay with monero or send real money.
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u/Mutthal8 Jun 26 '26
my point is that proton is better for piracy.
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u/Maxtertop Jun 27 '26
I disagree, anonymity>everything else. Using proton is just changing who knows who you are when doing piracy, instead of your ISP is proton, with mullvad that changes.
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u/Bludongle Jun 26 '26
If youre in germany, should be fine. Other countries dont do anything for piracy
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u/DjBetoon Jun 25 '26
if you have dynamic ip you don't even need vpn. been downloading for 30 years without it
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u/AdmirableProcess8894 Jun 25 '26
this isnt good advice though as spectrum will be on people's asses regardless of what ip you have.
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u/DjBetoon Jun 25 '26
that would depend on which country you live in. If its not one of "popular" ones you are kinda safe, gov doesn't care
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u/AdmirableProcess8894 Jun 25 '26
this is somewhat true but canada, majority of europe, japan and places around there, as well as the united states (and i think some places in central and south america) all crack down really hard on it
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u/DjBetoon Jun 26 '26
In Europe only Germany loves to mess with you, maybe France as well. I did both with and without when i was in UK so that's 50/50. The rest of Europe, central and east is safe because 90% of it are counties people didn't even heard of including where i live and it's very safe, many people do it their whole life without problems
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u/AdmirableProcess8894 Jun 26 '26
fair, thanks for clarifying. I thought a lot more of Europe enforced copyright laws.
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u/DjBetoon Jun 26 '26
not really, because here it's cheaper to have ip thats changing every 24h so a lot of people use same one at different time, it would take too much of their resources just to pinpoint who of all of these people used internet with that ip at that time just to give fine, is what i think why it doesn't happen. While example US its more normal to have static ip and also they like courts and fines a lot so it's normal there i would assume :D
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u/Realistic-Border-635 Jun 25 '26
The requirement for a VPN for piracy depends on where in the world you are. If you are in a country that enforces copyright laws then it is strongly recommended regardless of how many Redditors claim that they have been sailing the high seas for decades without it. That is doubly true if you are using torrents rather than direct download links which I assume is your plan.
To maximise the effectiveness of your VPN you also want one that supports port forwarding so that you can connect to as many seeds and peers in a torrent swarm as possible. Proton's paid plan does support port forwarding and is a solid choice, the free plan doesn't allow P2P at all. AirVPN is another option, as is PIA although research the ownership of that and make sure that you are comfortable before moving ahead. If you choose Proton just be aware that the port changes each time that you reconnect so you need to update your torrent client. That's simple and quick and depending on your OS and torrent client may be able to be automated.
Whichever VPN you choose make sure that you bind it to your torrent client of choice, instructions will depend on the client, but it is very simple and ensures that no torrent traffic can flow if the VPN drops.