With a VPN, the hacker can only access the IP of the VPN server. Without a VPN, a hacker could enter your machine through the communication port opened for torrenting (or another one) and read or destroy your files. Indeed, when you download torrents with a torrent software, your IP address is visible to all users of the network.

Not only does it prevent a public body (such as HADOPI) from detecting and identifying you, but it also prevents your computer from being hacked. The use of a VPN protects you in two ways. In practice, some people restrict their machine's uploading relatively or completely. In the collaborative spirit, the leecher (= 'leech', the one who downloads content) commits to become in turn a seeder (= 'sower', micro download server) and upload content to facilitate sharing to the greatest number. Torrent networks (like Kim Dotcom's famous Mega or Resilio) are also used to store personal or confidential data as a kind of collaborative cloud. Torrent networks are decried as a symbol of piracy when they just use a technology that decentralises and pools data storage. In other words, if 10 servers offer a 1MB/s download rate, the download will be as fast (if not faster) than downloading from a single fast 10MB/s server.

The torrent client will search for the best servers (offering a better downstream speed) and start downloading from several servers. Depending on the torrent client (µTorrent, BitTorrent, eMule.) and the type of network (Torrent, Mule.), downloading a file starts with the detection of the servers storing the file. Content on networks for torrenting is not by nature concentrated on a particular server (Amazon or Google cloud type), but disseminated on a constellation of machines (of individuals usually).

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