I was just reading through the interview process for RED, and they specifically forbid the use of VPN during the interview. I don’t understand this requirement, and it seems like it would just leak your IP address to the IRC host, which could potentially be used against you in a honeypot scenario. Once they have your IP, they could link that with the credentials used with the tracker while you are torrenting, regardless of if you used VPN while torrenting.
That whole thing looks shady as hell. To me it seems like the whole interview process is meant to collect all the data they can about you, whether it is to sell the info or to hold on to it for… reasons. Also a private, invite/interview entry only community that strictly prohibits the use of a VPN or TOR and is based around sharing media? Bruh. Either they are sharing something a lil more illicit than your standard rips of Hollywood movies, or this is a honeypot to catch the kinds of people who share that kind of stuff. Everything about this is all red flags and alarm bells
Seems like a honeypot to me, telling people to use something other than their home’s connection. Kind of difficult to prove. Really seems like they want that information specifically for the purpose of going after those people, since you know, ISP subscriber ID, can’t get that if they use the Library, a friend or acquaintance’s house, or an Inn or AirBnB, not saying you couldn’t track someone down with those if you wanted to, but it’s not as convenient.
I got confused and sus when I saw the words “interview process.” I wasn’t sure if I was understanding. My interview process was a chill dude in a lemmy chat sending me a link. So far it’s been awesome.