How does downloader privacy differ between hosts?

I hope this isn't an irritating question. Excuse my ignorance, please. I'm confused about subscribing to a new host or extending with RS, which expired today. I, like everyone, have now seen fewer RS links in many forums and even existing ones converted to other hosts like MU, HF, and Oron. I have read many debates about the undesirable changes at RapidShare and why so many uploaders are abandoning it. All my respect to uploaders, but I'm not much of an uploader, because I'm not that familiar with all that but periodically download things.

So, I would like to read more about safety and privacy for downloaders in considering a host. Has that been discussed in this forum? I have read elsewhere that RS was unmatched for its protection of downloaders' records. (I.e., see post 12 and 14 here

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Oron was not mentioned in the above discussion. Does anyone info have privacy and safety for downloaders that host or can add anything to the above discussion (or show me a link where this has already been discussed here?)

Thanks.

AFAIK any host anywhere if served a court order to reveal details will "spill the beans"
They have no choice in that situation

Depending of the country you are living in but as a downloader you have 0 risk - provided you download legal stuff.

The writer in the other thread (from another board that got zapped) made a compelling point that uploaders are equally at risk between hosts, but it's downloaders who have more protection with RS than MU and HF. He quoted presumably from the RS FAQ,


Will RapidShare communicate information about the files a customer has downloaded to third parties?
No. RapidShare does not store this information. Accordingly, we could not pass on this information, even if we wanted to. The prohibition of such logs is an inherent part of the contract for all our customers and we don't handle this differently for those who use the Free hosting either.

So, RS maintains there is no spilling beans because they have none on the downloaders. The author made it clear, however, that HF and MU have no such protection and do keep records of downloads that can be readily turned over.

My question is does anyone know if Oron or any other hosts have such good protection for downloaders as RS, or are they like HF and MU?

Maybe one thing first: don't trust any kind of "information" that is published from filehosters: It's just advertising. They are making most of their money with distributing copyrighted porn, so don't expect them to be true about security issues. Or do you really think they will anser you with: "Oh, you better be careful and don't download this file"

Regarding filehosters from the industries view the main problem are the uploaders, not the downloaders and it's just a question of effort. If one uploader feeds hundreds or more of downloaders, it's much easier to hunt the uploader.

I'm pretty sure that no lawyer is interested in the IP list of the downloaders of a special file: first you need a court that helps him getting this list from the filehoster, and then he would have to check hundreds or thousands of IPs from all over the world, find out the InternetServiceProviders and find another court that helps him to "convince" the ISPs to hand him over the userdata of a certain IP used at a certain date ...

You will more likely win in a lottery or be killed by lightning than anybody knocks at your door cause you have downloaded porn ...
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Loui375 wrote:

Thanks for that.

I'm still deliberating which host to go with. I can't afford them all. The average of the forums I visit seems to have more uploads with HF. Any comments on going with them?

Not going to happend.
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Eljay wrote:

I still have my RS account, my MU account and HF. At least the latter two don't really dissapoint and get me through 99 percent of what I want.