How can I use IRC safely?
reddit / irc

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gyngq · 2019-04-27 16:25

I got into IRC mainly because of the ebooks channels (#ebooks /
#bookz) and I was wondering whether I need to use a VPN or something
like that for safety

I'm new to IRC so sorry if this question sounds pretty nooby

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MeowWhat · 2019-04-27 17:13

Safety? What are you planning on doing? If you're getting files from
people I guess have your antivirus on? Other than that I cant think of
a reason to worry about safety unless you dox yourself.

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gyngq · 2019-04-27 17:36

Nothing just I just download ebooks

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ChickenOfDoom · 2019-04-27 18:12

If you're concerned about legal risk, nobody gets sued for downloading
books. In the US, consumer level copyright lawsuits are only filed
anymore against people torrenting porn and to a lesser extent low
budget B movies. There is zero chance anyone will consider it worth
their time or money to subpoena an IRC server to go after people
downloading books.

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loulan · 2019-04-27 21:01

Why are you more worried about safety on IRC than reddit then?

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SqualorTrawler · 2019-04-27 21:14

Generally speaking, there are the following options for IRC, which
historically exposes your IP address all over the place.  As someone
else commented, IRC is a backwater and it is unlikely any monitors it
or cares but nevertheless:

* tor, depending on the network.  Some are more or less hostile to tor
users than others.

* VPN

* Bouncer (sort of an IRC proxy)

* Cloaks, for networks that offer them (masks your IP address.)

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gyngq · 2019-04-28 14:27

I don't know I guess IRC just looks more hacker-ish (it's even a
word)?