Whenever you load a webpage or watch a video, your ISP gets a play-by-play of all your internet activity. It can sometimes feel like your ISP is peeking over your shoulder and making a note of everything you do online, almost like there’s no escaping their prying eyes.
They see it all, from embarrassing medical searches to what shows you stream before bed. But as scary as a constantly-watching internet provider may sound, there is a way to remove the privacy shutters and regain control of your online presence.
Don’t stop reading if you want to find out these methods.
What Is An ISP?
An ISP, or internet service provider, is a company that provides users access to the internet. ISPs own the physical internet infrastructure that connects computers, Wi-Fi routers, and other devices to the World Wide Web.
Whether you connect to the internet via home Wi-Fi, public hotspots, or mobile data – there is always an ISP behind the scenes enabling your online activity. ISPs maintain vast networks of underground cables, satellites, cell towers, and data centers to move internet traffic across vast distances at high speeds.
When you browse the web, stream videos, or download apps – your internet requests first travel to your ISP’s gateway before getting routed through the complex global grid that interconnects all internet networks.
Your local ISP takes care of the last-mile connection between you and this worldwide backbone. In addition to connectivity, ISPs also handle important internet functions like assigning your device’s unique public IP address and managing DNS requests that translate domains to websites.
It may be convenient, but all this means that ISPs have a relatively comprehensive view of your internet usage and online footprints each time you go on the internet.
Why Does An ISP See Your Browsing History?
One of the main things people want to know is if their internet provider can actually see the websites they visit and their browsing history. The answer is yes. Unfortunately, your ISP has the technical ability to monitor your internet activity and track where you go online.
They have complete visibility into all the internet traffic and DNS look-ups passing through their networks. This includes being able to see the IP addresses and domain names of every website, app, and streaming service your device connects to.
“But why do they do that?” you may wonder. Well, your internet provider can monitor your browsing history and online activity for a few key reasons.
Throttling Enforcement
Internet providers need to ensure their networks can handle all the internet traffic passing through. When many users are using the internet at once, it can slow down if there’s too much data flowing.
To prevent slowing, ISPs monitor how people use the internet so they know when extra bandwidth or capacity is needed. That’s why some ISPs will throttle connections. This means intentionally slowing down certain internet activities if they notice a single user consuming too much bandwidth.
It helps ensure that the internet speed stays good for everybody overall. Although throttling is necessary to keep their networks running smoothly, this also allows internet providers to influence behaviors.
For instance, they could discourage you from using competitors’ streaming services in favor of their own.
Data Retention Laws
Data retention laws were made by governments worldwide who want internet companies to keep records of who visits what websites and when requiring ISPs to save people’s browsing histories. The laws say ISPs must hold onto logs showing each website address, app, video, or game their customers use.
They have to record the time and date, too. This creates a long-term trail of everywhere everyone goes online. The saved browsing data helps police catch bad guys like hackers and spies. If a crime involves the internet, authorities can ask the ISP for someone’s history records to see what websites they visited during an investigation.
But it also means regular internet users have all their activities documented by their provider just in case police want to check later.
Monetize Your Data
Internet providers collect a lot of information about what websites people visit and the types of content they like. This includes browsing histories showing everywhere someone goes online. Rather than just storing this data, some providers see it as valuable information that can make money.
They monetize people’s internet activity histories by selling them to other companies. Advertisers are willing to pay for data about users’ online interests. This allows advertisers to target people more closely with ads tailored to their browsing habits after learning about a large group of internet users.
ISPs also share data with tech giants who use it to personalize their services. In return, these providers earn cash from these deals since they initially gathered valuable online behavioral info.
What Other Data Can Your ISP See and Track?
Your internet provider has the ability to see more than just the websites you visit. As the company connecting you to the internet, they can potentially watch many different parts of your online activity.
For example, since your ISP delivers all your internet traffic, they can detect what apps and programs you use based on the signals they send. This could show things like messaging, maps, shopping, or banking without names.
ISPs may also identify music or videos you’ve streamed on your devices, games played online, and even phone numbers, texts, and calls sent through metadata logs. Because ISPs assign IP addresses, they technically know which devices use the home internet connection and when by mapping WiFi signals.
Your location data embedded in IP addresses can provide some clues about where you go online from, even if not as exact as GPS. Finally, information sent without encryption could expose your emails, files, purchases, passwords, or website content in plain text as it travels to destinations.
Why Should You Hide Your Browsing History From ISPs?
Privacy and Anonymity
With your browsing histories exposed, there’s a risk of profile building, targeted advertising, or even identity theft if your data is stolen or leaked. When you’re online, you leave behind a trail of digital footprints that show where you’ve been and what you’ve done.
If an internet provider can see and store all these activities, then they hold a detailed profile about you. By hiding your internet footprints from the network middleman through encryption and anonymity tools, you can regain your privacy and the choice to share details about yourself online on your terms.
This allows you to explore while allowing access to opportunities and information.
Avoid Targeted Advertising
Advertisers like to show you ads for things they think you might want based on what sites you look at. For example, if you visit a sports website often, advertisers may think you like sports gear and show you ads for sports equipment.
This is called targeted advertising.When you hide your browsing history from your ISP, advertisers don’t have as much information to target you. They won’t know exactly what sites, videos, or apps interest you.
This makes the ads you see less repetitive and keeps some of your online activities more private from companies trying to sell you things.
Prevent Hackers and Identity Theft
When your internet providers collect and store browsing histories, it means all the websites and accounts people visit are recorded in one place. If hackers access these history logs, it would give them a lot of private information about users.
They might find passwords or account numbers saved in browsers. Without detailed online profiles collected by providers, it would be much harder for criminals to steal someone’s identity or access important accounts just from infiltrating browsing information archives alone.
So, if you take the time to hide your browsing histories from internet providers, there is less centralized data about your life stored anywhere that someone can target for hacking.
Escape ISP Throttling and Censorship
Internet providers have a lot of control over the connections they provide to users. With great network power comes the ability to block or slow down specific traffic if they desire. Some households have reported reduced speeds for specific apps or websites at different times of day.
This throttling could unfairly hinder your access to services an ISP may not favor for business reasons. Anonymizing your browsing allows you to bypass traffic inspection systems that ISPs rely on to identify and manage speeds for specific applications and destinations online.
Encryption and anonymity tools allow you to continue exploring freely even if new policies ever emerge that hinder access to standard sources.
Techniques To Hide Your Browsing History From ISPs
There are a few different approaches available for taking control of your personal data and limiting what internet providers can see as you browse the internet. Below are some common methods:
Use Tor Browser
One of the most effective techniques for protecting your browsing privacy is through the Tor browser. Tor stands for “The Onion Router,” a free software that bounces your internet signals around a network of volunteer relays to disguise where visits originated from.
When you use Tor, your internet connection is encrypted and randomly routed worldwide through several volunteer relays, called nodes, before reaching the final destination website. This “onion routing” makes it impossible for anyone to track your location or browsing path.
Not only does Tor obscure which sites you access, but no one can see your actual IP address. Instead, Tor assigns you a new temporary IP address each time you use it. So even if your ISP records where you go online, they can’t tie it directly back to you.
Use a VPN
A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is another popular tool for securing your internet activity. A VPN provider works by creating an encrypted “tunnel” between your device and the VPN server you connect to.
This tunnel means all of your network traffic is securely transmitted through this protected pathway. When you establish a VPN connection, you essentially route your connection through the VPN’s server network before accessing the open internet.
So, instead of your ISP seeing your actual public IP address and online actions, it only sees encrypted VPN traffic between you and the VPN server. If you need a reliable VPN service provider, SekurVPN is the guy for the job.
When you use a VPN like SekurVPN, all the websites you visit and the information you send online will be encrypted. This means that your internet provider (or ISP) won’t be able to see which specific websites you are looking at.
Using SekurVPN means you can browse privately without your ISP spying on your internet habits and history.
Use a Proxy Server
A proxy works similarly to a VPN by rerouting your connection but functions only at the browser level rather than encrypting all device traffic. When you use a proxy server, your browser is configured to send requests to the proxy server rather than connecting directly to websites.
The proxy then forwards these requests and returns the content to you anonymously. To your ISP, it appears you are only communicating with the proxy rather than revealing each specific site visited through those exchanges.
Your IP address is hidden; instead, the proxy IP address is shown as the origin. Some proxies also alter the browser ID info to mask your true device and location. This protects your identity and prevents behavioral profiling for a long time.
Use Encrypted Browsers
Regular browsers only encrypt the login portions of websites, leaving much of your activity in plain view. But encrypted browsers conceal all communications.
Some examples of encrypted browsers include Tor Browser and the privacy-focused browsers Brave, Firefox, and Chrome/Edge when used with HTTPS Everywhere. These browsers force encryption on every web page visit using HTTPS protocols to scramble data as it travels.
When you use an encrypted browser, your ISP can only see the domain names of websites rather than the actual web pages, searches, or form data contents. They see the encrypted equivalent rather than readable metadata about pages and your online behaviors.
Change Your DNS Settings
Tweaking your Domain Name System (DNS) configuration provides another layer of privacy protection from your internet provider. DNS acts like a phone book for the internet, translating human-friendly domain names into the numeric IP addresses needed for computers to locate websites.
But your ISP often runs default DNS, allowing them to monitor DNS queries. Changing your device’s DNS server can route these translation requests through an alternate private DNS service instead of your provider.
Encrypted DNS providers also refuse to track or share DNS query logs, disassociating your name requests from your identity. However, encrypted DNS alone does not fully protect browsing pages and paths. They are best combined with VPNs or encrypted browsers.
Other Things You Can Do To Enhance Your Privacy
In addition to using technologies like VPNs, proxies and encrypted browsers to hide your browsing history, there are some other proactive steps you can take to strengthen your privacy online:
Clear Your Browser History and Cookies
Browser histories and cookies contain a lot of details about your online habits and identities. Every website you visit leaves behind small text files called cookies that track things like items in a shopping cart, login info, or preferences.
Over time, dozens of cookies from different sites build a profile of your behaviors. So, on a schedule, such as weekly, take a few minutes to erase your cookies and browsing records. This prevents data buildup that profiles you over the long run based on everyday internet activities like reading news sites.
Use Ad Blockers and Privacy Extensions
In addition to clearing browser data, installing complimentary tools like ad blockers and privacy extensions gives you further control over the information that is exposed through regular browsing.
Many websites embed invisible tracking pixels and third-party cookies that profile users across the internet. Ad blockers work by stopping these tracking elements from secretly logging your browsing habits and locations.
Conclusion
The internet should be a free and open place for all, without anyone having to worry about their information being tracked.
But now that we’ve discussed several important techniques for hiding your browsing history from internet service providers, it makes it much harder for your internet provider and other third parties to monitor what you search for, view online, and do on the internet.
