TunnelBear for torrenting
TunnelBear is one of Canada’s leading VPN providers. In fact, it’s one of the biggest VPNs in 2024. Owned by security giant McAfee, TunnelBear offers a reliable, accessible VPN service on all major platforms. But can you use TunnelBear for torrenting?
Does TunnelBear support torrenting?
There’s a good reason why TunnelBear doesn’t officially support torrenting. Canada has been fairly notorious for being hostile to P2P downloading in the past. In 2015, the government passed a new raft of laws specifically targeting illegal downloads.
After that, ISPs were required by law to send letters to users caught downloading copyrighted material. But the courts still lacked the power to send torrenters to jail, and copyright holders didn’t get new ways to sue offenders.
However, there was another nasty surprise among the laws of 2015. They also demanded that VPNs and ISPs keep logs, which would “allow the identity of the person to whom the electronic location belongs to be determined.” This resulted in some VPNs pulling out of Canada for a safer location, and the remaining ones (like TunnelBear) are under pressure to comply with the new laws.
What is the TunnelBear torrenting policy like?
Given the legal context, you might assume that TunnelBear would totally ban P2P downloads on its servers.
When you visit the TunnelBear website, you won’t find any mention of torrents or peer to peer downloading anywhere
It’s clear that this isn’t a VPN that wants to promote torrent downloads and optimize its infrastructure for this purpose.
The absence of torrenting on the VPN’s website isn’t an accident. When the internet laws discussed earlier were passed, TunnelBear decided to block user access to P2P downloads. That is, instead of logging torrents and going against their core values, TunnelBear decided to block quasi-legal activities and focus on providing a fast, lightweight VPN for other online purposes.
But they may have left the door open to allowing P2P downloads in the future. Until 2017, the TunnelBear website carried an article that clearly cited complaints from content providers and explained the VPN’s stance on user privacy. However, that article has been taken down, and you’ll struggle to find an explanation of TunnelBear’s position on torrents.
This may mean that the VPN seeks to attract users who want to torrent but are unaware of TunnelBear’s blocking practices. Or it may mean that the VPN is reconsidering its strategy. We’ll have to wait and see where events lead. But for now, TunnelBear for torrenting isn’t an option – at least officially.
With this in mind, we highly recommend using Panama-based NordVPN – the best VPN for P2P.
Has anyone successfully downloaded torrents with TunnelBear?
While TunnelBear seems to be hostile towards torrenting and certainly doesn’t go out of its way to accommodate downloading them, there is evidence that torrenters can share files all the same. So the VPN’s P2P barrier could be more of a “soft block” instead of an outright ban.
Some users have suggested that the VPN has moved from a harsher position on torrenting to a more tolerant one. But if they have, TunnelBear has not announced the changes in public. And they aren’t reflected in the company’s privacy policy, which continues to ignore P2P downloading altogether.
If you are a TunnelBear user and find that torrenting is possible, it might be worth reconsidering your provider until that privacy policy contains more detail.
How safe is TunnelBear for torrenting?
Let’s assume TunnelBear decides to allow torrenting in the future. Is there any evidence that the VPN can store data about what you download and provide this to law enforcement if requested?
In its privacy policy, TunnelBear states that it does not collect the following data at all (with no exceptions):
- IP addresses visiting their website
- IP addresses upon service connection
- DNS Queries while connected
- Any information about the applications, services, or websites our users use while connected to their Service
This is reassuring. It suggests that TunnelBear doesn’t collect the kind of in-depth personal data that could help trace specific torrent downloads.
The company is clear about providing “personal data” upon receiving a subpoena or valid warrant. But what does this personal data contain, and can it link you to torrenting activity?
Personal data according to TunnelBear
Basically, TunnelBear’s definition of personal data is quite broad and can certainly help law enforcement personnel or legal researchers build a profile of an individual’s online activities. It includes information like:
- Email addresses
- Twitter IDs (if supplied)
- Details about the length of TunnelBear packages
- Payment details, including the name on credit cards, used to purchase subscriptions, the date of any payments, and the last four numbers on the card
- Operating system
- Total data usage per month
- Interactions with customer support (so think twice about asking about torrenting)
That information can easily identify you as a TunnelBear user. But can it unmask your torrenting activities? Probably not. As the VPN stresses, “we cannot disclose information about the applications, services, or websites our users consume while connected to our Services” because they simply don’t have it.
Should we take TunnelBear at their word?
However, wait a minute. Didn’t we talk earlier about how the 2015 law required VPNs to keep logs of user activity? If TunnelBear really doesn’t hold information about what users do while connected to their VPN, how could they comply with these regulations?
At the time they were passed, tech commentators debated whether VPNs would fall under the definition of a “means of telecommunications.” It could be that companies like TunnelBear have decided that they can safely host torrenters (at least unofficially) and that they aren’t open to prosecution.
Alternatively, TunnelBear may not be entirely honest about their information on what users download.
The truth is, this is a question where we don’t have a whole lot of information to rely on. The legal situation in Canada regarding VPNs and P2P downloading is such a mess that two things could be true:
- VPNs could have decided to ignore the anti-torrenting regulations while not overtly marketing their services as torrent-friendly
- VPNs could be logging users when they access torrent clients in an effort to comply with the laws and without mentioning this in their privacy policies
Conclusion: don’t use TunnelBear for torrenting
In summary, TunnelBear has a number of drawbacks for torrenters, making it a no-go for P2P downloading. With VPNs around that cater more effectively to torrenters’ needs, it seems wiser to look for a reliable P2P service, such as NordVPN. But before you do that, remember two important things about VPNs and torrenting:
- Installing a VPN doesn’t make your torrenting software run through it automatically. You will need to do some manual configuration by following instructions on the service’s website.
- No VPN can protect you from yourself. Therefore you should check the comments section what the users say about that particular torrent and scan the files with solid antivirus software.
Recommended reads:
TunnelBear VPN review
NordVPN review
Best VPNs for torrenting
Best VPN for torrenting by Reddit
