If I say Privacy in today’s world is a 100% myth, will you agree?
I know most of you will not believe me. But trust us, if you are online connected to the internet for any reason, the possibility of you being tracked or information being collected cannot be ignored. And this has been proven time and again that all the data that passes through your ISP, if not encrypted can be intercepted. Also, your ISP can sell the collected data and throttle the bandwidth to slow the internet speed when streaming or torrenting.
This makes hiding browsing history from your ISP important.
So, if you are a privacy-focused user or you don’t want your ISP to see everything, you do it online. You must be looking for solutions to hide browsing data.
With that said, here are the 5 best ways to take control of your online privacy and hide browsing data.
Note: If you think browsing in Incognito mode keeps you secure from ISP, then you are wrong. When you use Incognito mode Google Chrome itself says, “Your activity might be visible to your Internet service provider.”
Read More: Is Incognito Mode Really Secure? Or Are We Just Too Blinded By The Concept of Privacy?
But worry not, you are at the right place, here we will explain the best way to improve your online privacy.
Why do ISPs collect data?
- To earn money by selling collected data to advertisers
- To monitor torrenting traffic and inform agencies where torrenting is banned
- Due to data retention laws
- To enforce censorship and access content based on geographical location
Throttle bandwidth and avoid network congestion
How To Hide Browsing History from ISP?
5 BEST VPNS WE RECOMMEND
- SystweakVPN
- NordVPN
- PurVPN
- SurfShark
- ExpressVPN
Read more: Systweak VPN VS NordVPN Vs PureVPN – Which is the Best VPN for Windows
Why do we recommend these VPNs?
Simply based on your security protocols, servers they offer, no-log policy advanced features, pricing, and best deals they offer. We recommend using these VPNs to keep your browsing history hidden from ISP.
Read More: ExpressVPN vs Cyberghost vs Systweak VPN
5 Best to Hide Browsing History from Internet Service Provider
To be honest, your ISP collects a lot of information like sites you visit, when you were online, time spent browsing a specific site, files downloaded, search, and browsing history. Hence, to stop ISP from tracking your browsing follow the ways explained below:
1. Use a VPN
Virtual Private Network often referred to as VPN is a service that stops ISP from tracking your browsing history. Using it, you can not only hide browsing history but can also skip torrenting and hide IP addresses. VPNs are the best and effective way to bypass ISP and geo-restrictions. When you connect to a VPN you mask the IP address and location thereby rerouting network traffic through an encrypted tunnel.
Both paid and free VPNs are available in the market but we do not recommend using a free VPN as it usually leaks the IP address. This means the purpose of using a VPN is defeated. And if you ask us for a recommendation then we can’t think of a better option than SystweakVPN for Windows users.
This best VPN for Windows offers 256-bit military-grade encryption through OpenVPN. Moreover, it also comes with a Kill Switch, Stealth mode, and lets you unblock mostly all streaming content. In addition to this, you can try using NordVPN, PureVPN, Cyberghost.
Read More: 6 Best VPNs to Watch Disney Plus Abroad (Anywhere)
Note: When you use the VPN, you trust the VPN provider with your data instead of ISP. Hence, always choose a VPN that offers a zero-log policy and is clear with all the things in its privacy policy.
To know more about SystweakVPN, read the detailed review.
2. Use Tor
Read More: What is Onion Over VPN, and How to Use it?
Tor popularly known as the browser for the dark web offers complete anonymity. Using this Onion Router, you can enhance online privacy and can stop ISP from tracking your browsing, download, and website visit history. Moreover, Tor helps in defeating government censorship, and it routes internet traffic through a random series of different servers that hide the original identity.
When you use the Tor network developed by the U.S. navy, all your data is transmitted in an encrypted form making it hard for others to understand it. To use Tor, all you need to do is download Tor, run it, and surf the web as you do with Google Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser.
In addition to this, for additional security, use SystweakVPN as it will prevent the logging of any data by the ISP. This means neither your ISP nor VPN will be able to track you down and know what you are doing online. This way, you can hide your browsing history from ISP easily.
Read More: Is Tor Still Safe For Normal Browsing?
3. Change your DNS settings
Domain Name Systems (DNS) servers translate domain names into IP addresses. This means that the website name you enter in the browser is translated into a code that the computer can understand and you can visit the site.
For example, when you type systweak.com DNS matches the site name to the IP address so that the browser can look for the exact link and the requested site can be accessed. Undoubtedly, DNS makes accessing a site easy but it isn’t good for privacy. This means anyone monitoring your network (such as ISP) can use this data to build a profile and know what you browse.
By default, your ISP assigns DNS servers. This means if the ISP is monitoring you, the DNS resolver is poisoned, and this increases the risk of the data leak. To stop this from taking place, we suggest changing DNS settings.
To do so, follow these steps:
1. Press Windows + X > Network Connections
2. Click Change adapter options
3. Right-click your Internet connection (Ethernet or Wi-Fi) > Properties
4. Double-click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)
5. Select Use the following DNS server addresses option
6. Under Preferred DNS server enter 8.8.8.8
7. Under Alternate DNS server to 8.8.4.4
8. Click OK
This will change the DNS settings. The ones we have mentioned are Google Public DNS servers if you want you can try CloudFlare or OpenDNS.
Note: If you use IPv6, you need to change IPv6 DNS server addresses.
However, if you use SystweakVPN, you don’t have to do anything. That’s because SystweakVPN runs its private DNS when you connect to one of the servers. This ensures complete online privacy.
4. Visit only HTTPS websites or use HTTPS Everywhere browser extension
Still more than half of the internet is unencrypted. Hence, if you want to browse securely, make sure you visit HTTPS sites only. If you find this difficult try using the HTTPS Everywhere browser extension. This extension will send a data encryption request to the browser so that all the traffic is encrypted and ISP cannot detect what you are surfing.
Note: To provide end-to-end encryption HTTPS sites, use SSL certification. Therefore, visiting HTTPS sites instead of HTTP is recommended.
HTTPS browser extension works within the browser. Therefore, if you want to stay secure and hide your IP address, location using a VPN is suggested.
5. Use a privacy-focused search engine
Hope you all know a major share of Google’s earning is via the ads. Yes, you read it right in 2019 Google made 160 billion USD from advertisements. This means Google collects data and creates opportunities for marketing agencies to sell their things. And ISP plays a great role in this. So, if you don’t want this from happening and want to stop tech giants like Google from making money by collecting and selling your data you should switch to the privacy-focused search engine.
For instance, you can use DuckDuckGo, a private search engine that doesn’t track you nor does let ISP track the data.
Wrap Up:
Using these 5 best ways, you can easily prevent your ISP from tracking you online and can hide your browsing history. Also, if you want you can use SystweakVPN to stay secure and access restricted sites.
FAQ:
Q1. Can your ISP see your browsing history?
Yes, your ISP can track your online activity, see the sites you visit, files downloaded and time spent on a site.
Q2. Can SystweakVPN hide your browsing history from your ISP?
Yes, SystweakVPN is capable of masking your location, IP address, and browsing history from the ISP.
Q3. Does a VPN help avoid ISP Throttling?
Yes, using a VPN you can avoid ISP throttling and enjoy unrestricted bandwidth when streaming content.
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