Share:
Hide your browsing history from your ISP so they don’t sell your info
Do you ever wonder how much information your ISP gathers from your browsing habits? Worse yet, how much of it could be sold to advertisers?
These are the tough things we have to deal with in today’s always-connected world. The sad thing is that there is no legislation to protect how ISPs can use your intercepted personal data as it passes through the systems.
So what are your options if you’d like to be online and not feel your ISP is constantly tracking your every move? Using best practices for security, your data and browsing habits can help prevent others from intercepting your browsing history.
What does my ISP know about my browsing history?
It’s important to remember that ISPs record everything you browse and download to your internet-enabled devices. ISPs track and record data through your IP address, port numbers and DNS address.
ISPs analyze this data to see websites you frequent, who you converse with and any downloads you performed. While discovering what you’ve downloaded or browsed requires a little extra effort on their end, it can be done. ISPs use something called deep packet inspection (DPI) to inspect each data packet and allow it to read the contents of your browsing history.
As ISPs gain access to your browsing records, they can access geographic locations, financial data, health data, download actions, private emails, conversations, spouse and children’s info and whatever else they can discover. Due to FTC laws, it’s disturbing that it’s not illegal for ISPs to sell this information to a third party or the highest bidder.
With this specific information at their fingertips, ISPs can also show you targeted ads tailored to your browsing patterns. The same technology lets them keep a view of your location by monitoring your geolocation data.
ISPs worldwide can then sell your private data to vendors, advertisers and other third parties. Ever notice when you’ve been looking for that new tech gadget, and then ads are oddly tailored to that wherever you go?
Isn’t incognito mode still private?
While incognito mode is primarily thought of as a de facto means of privacy, this isn’t the case. The long and the short of it is while using a browser’s private or incognito mode selection will prevent that particular session from displaying in your local browser history, your ISP can still track you by utilizing your IP address.
It is still a helpful feature, but more so if you’re using someone else’s computer or want to keep specific search queries out of your browser history. But again, private or incognito browsing isn’t as private as it leads on to be.
Here are some options to keep your browsing to yourself.
1. Use a VPN
A virtual private network or VPN is your best friend in securing privacy as it encrypts and funnels internet traffic. So it doesn’t allow anyone, including the government or your ISP, to read the contents of your web traffic.
Another benefit of using a VPN is that it hides you from your ISP as you connect to the VPN server. The ISP can see that you’ve established a VPN connection, but it cannot see the contents of your web traffic, as it’s encrypted.
Kim’s recommendation is our sponsor, ExpressVPN. It’s blazing fast, so you won’t sacrifice speed to get your privacy back. You can get an extra three months free with a year using Kim’s special link, ExpressVPN.com/Kim.
2. Try a specialized browser
Using specialized browsers like Tor Browser is beneficial for a variety of reasons. Using the Tor browser jumps your internet connections through various nodes, making it difficult for your ISP to track you. Tor is slightly slower than something like the Epic Privacy Browser, which is built on the Chromium platform, similar to Google Chrome.
Epic Privacy Browser offers privacy features such as a do not track headers. It hides your IP address through a built-in proxy, blocks plug-ins and third-party cookies and doesn’t retain history. It can also detect and block ad networks, social networks, and web analytics.
3. Browse secure sites only
Websites that use HTTP do not protect visitors and aren’t secure. Whereas HTTPS, or hypertext transfer protocol secure, encrypt the website’s contents, making it difficult for your activities to be intercepted.
If a site doesn’t have HTTPS, you can always try the browser extension HTTPS Everywhere to secure your privacy as it automatically switches HTTP websites to HTTPS.
4. Stay away from public Wi-Fi that isn’t secure
If you’re a public Wi-Fi user, you are putting yourself at risk. With ISPs having the ability to sell your browsing history to anyone, subjects using unrestricted Wi-Fi are more at danger of information gathering.
5. Don’t check in or tag your location
If you’re tempted to check in to your favorite restaurant or any other place that allows that sort of thing, don’t, as your location is likely being tracked by your network provider.
Where you choose to spend your time can reveal a lot of personal information that could be used to target you. So avoid tagging your location everywhere you go.
Tags: browsing habits, browsing history, financial data, Google Chrome, health data, incognito mode, legislation, personal data, privacy, security, Tor Browser, virtual private network, VPN
Share:
