Are Kodi users being monitored by their addons?

[HARDY]

Towards the end of last month, the TVAddons website and associated Fusion repository mysteriously began working again. This resulted in initial celebration and then confusion in the Kodi community.

Both had been abruptly shut down earlier in the year as part of a sustained attack by copyright lawyers on illegal Kodi addons. They were not alone with a number of Kodi’s most popular unofficial addons, including Navi-X (which has also now re-emerged) disappearing too.

The suspicious return of TVAddons

There was plenty of rumour and gossip about what had happened to TVAddons, but then in the middle of last month, there was a revelation from TorrentFreak. They revealed that a number of TVAddon domains had been transferred to a Canadian law firm which has been linked to a number of copyright cases against Kodi addons.

The new registrant for the sites was Daniel Drapeau, who works with DrapeauLex, a firm of lawyers which specialises in Intellectual Property. At the same time, the websites, which didn’t even have a maintenance notice on them when they disappeared have now miraculously returned from the dead.

What is more, they are offering Kodi addons again. New addons, such as Live Tube, are being released too, but there are a couple of points that the Kodi Community has focused in on. Firstly, the new addons are all legal and do not allow any access to copyrighted content.

This may be part of a new strategy for TVAddons and correspondence purporting to be from the founder has suggested as much. But this has never been verified as genuine and users are therefore suspicious. At the same time, the website and the new addons are all urging users to download their ‘new’ repository to access addons. Why is this so important when many Kodi users still have the existing repository on their system?

Honeytrap

There is growing suspicion that this is because DrapeauLex is using TVAddons, the Fusion Repository, and Navi-X as a honeytrap. In other words, they are allowing access again but using the opportunity to monitor the online activities of users to see if they are in breach of copyright law.

There is no confirmation of this, although some media reports suggest that the law firm themselves have said as much. There is also no indication as to how this might be done. But Kodi addons have been used to plant spyware on user devices before so this seems the most likely method.

However, it is being done, the Kodi community is urging all users to avoid the new TVAddons, Fusion repository, and Naxi-X addon unless they want their Kodi viewing habits to be transmitted directly to a firm of copyright lawyers.

Was Mayweather-McGregor monitoring you?

Meanwhile, it is not just TVAddons related Kodi software which could be spying on Kodi users viewing habits. If you managed to catch the recent Mayweather-McGregor fight via a Kodi addon, then I’m afraid there might be some bad news.

It was reported in Australia that a number of those streaming the fight illegal had noticed a mysterious code which was embedded in the streams and only visible at certain points during the fight. The code was a combination of letters and numbers and apparently remained constant for each user throughout the fight.

Subsequent analysis has suggested that these codes could have been put there by broadcasters to track illegal streams of their content. “[It could allow the broadcaster] to track the illicit stream back to a subscriber and/or a set-top box tied to a particular account.”

If that does prove to be the case, it could spell bad news for those people who streamed the fight. “Since that subscriber has then re-streamed that content back online illegally, the code would act as a homing beacon and could spell bad news for the individual involved.”

Some people have argued that the watermark might be a scare tactic as there are various means they could track their broadcasts invisibly if they were so inclined. It might also have been put there by another pirate broadcaster who wanted to know which sites were stealing his stream.

At the moment, no-one knows for sure, but for those who did stream, there is now a worrying wait to see if any subsequent action is taken by broadcasters.

Both of these issues show the importance of users protecting their online privacy when using Kodi. By using a VPN when streaming content on Kodi, users can be sure that their online activity is secure and their privacy protected. There are a number of VPNs which offer a server tailor made to the needs of Kodi users, whilst some can even be used on popular Kodi devices such as the Amazon Fire TV Stick as well as traditional mobile devices and computers.

Both the hijacking of TVaddons and the possible monitoring of the Mayweather-McGregor fight show how risky the work of unofficial Kodi addons can be. Which is why it is always recommended to use a VPN when streaming anything via Kodi.