The team behind Tails OS, an operating system designed to safeguard users’ privacy, has decided to drop support for BitTorrent downloads.
“With the ongoing transition from BitTorrent v1 to v2, the BitTorrent v1 files that we provided until now can become a security concern. We don’t think that updating to BitTorrent v2 is worth the extra migration and maintenance cost for our team. Direct download from one of our mirrors is usually faster,” a Tails OS developer says in a release log for Tails 7.4.
An internal debate sparked among the developers of the operating system. Some argued that, according to the latest numbers, 11% of all Tails’ total downloads took place via BitTorrent. Additionally, keeping BitTorrent available as a download option would take some of the load from the company’s mirror pools, making HTTPS downloads faster.
However, arguments for removing the option to download Tails OS via BitTorrent ultimately prevailed. For starters, BitTorrent v1 uses the SHA-1 hashing algorithm, which poses a security concern, according to the developers.
Other objections were also raised, such as the decreasing support of BitTorrent v2 by some clients and the fact that the release of new Tails versions was sometimes delayed due to slow downloads from the BitTorrent seed.
Furthermore, the development team states that downloading Tails via BitTorrent adds more complexity for users to install the operating system.
Therefore, starting with Tails 7.4, the newest version of the operating system is no longer available via BitTorrent.
Tails, which is an acronym that stands for The Amnesic Incognito Live System, is an alternate operating system that’s aimed at preserving online privacy, anonymity, and security. The OS never stores data on an internal or external hard drive. That way, a user never leaves a digital footprint, which makes it practically impossible to obtain his or her identity.
Tails OS is based on the Linux distro Debian and exclusively connects to the internet via Tor, which protects internet users against online tracking, surveillance, and censorship by anonymizing internet activity.
Tails OS and the Tor web browser are mostly used by journalists, human rights activists, advocacy groups, and dissidents who live in a country with an oppressive or authoritarian regime.
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