Internet service provider (ISP) is the company that provides internet access to different businesses and families for personal usage. ISPs let their customers do all kinds of work related to the internet, such as online shopping, surfing the web, conducting business, and connecting with family and friends for a fee. ISPs use satellites, copper wires, fiber, and other forms to provide internet access to customers.
The customers using ISP usually think ISP is spying on them – most certainly, it’s true, but their companies claim that they are doing this to improve the user experience.
Your ISP can and does sell your internet browsing history to others for creepy ads that follow you around the internet or the emails you receive. Knowing how to configure your IP address and your Wi-Fi network in the best way, can go miles in protecting your digital identity.
Fortunately for us, we know a number of ways in which you can stop your ISP from spying on you. You can also use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to keep your information secret. A VPN does this process by encrypting your data so that the ISP won’t be able to track it, and it’s also protecting your data or information from third parties. When a website is using an encrypted connection, neither the ISP can see the specific pages within that website you visit nor can they know what you are searching on your web.
What can your ISP see?
Internet service providers can track all your online activities. They are:
- Online searches
- Files that you have downloaded
- Mails
- Social media data
- Websites you have visited
- When and where do you connect your internet
- All your passwords
The major purpose of spying on you is to improve your internet experiences – it is their official reason. In certain countries, it’s legal by law to store users’ search history. ISP’s can also sell your data to earn a profit. Marketers will pay lots of money to your ISP for providing information related to you because online marketing is incredibly data-driven.
How to stop your ISP from spying on you?
Using a reliable VPN is a way to keep your information private. Using VPN will not only protect you from ISP but also other third parties and hackers. It will also transfer your IP address to the VPN’s server in simple language; they won’t track your location when you use the internet.
Besides VPN, you can use many other methods to block ISP tracking - some of them are using a proxy, the Tor Network, and HTTPS websites.
1. Use VPN services
VPN services can help you to protect your data and online information from ISPs’. Not only that, but a VPN will also protect or hide your data from hackers and other data thieves. There is a wide variety of VNPs out there you can choose from. Some of them are:
- Express VPN
Express VPN can be used on every device like a phone, tablet, computer, and router. It provides great server, speed, and usability. It might be a little expensive than the other VPNs in the market, but it’s one of the best VPNs for protecting your online information.
- Proton VPN
Proton VPN provides a free VPN service for protecting your device. It also provides a great server and speed.
- Nord VPN
NordVPN is much faster than ProtonVPN. Both are secure, but NordVPN offers the latest in VPN encryption technology with the wire guard protocol. NordVPN provides better features to block all the unwanted and creepy ads when browsing and provides diskless servers.
- Surf Shark
Surf Shark VPN is the best with a fantastic value of money (reasonable price) and is incredibly safe and user-friendly.
2. Use a Tor Network to protect your personal information
The Tor Network is a secure and encrypted protocol that ensures the privacy of data and communications on the web. It’s also known as ‘The Onion Router,’ the system uses different layers to hide the online data, IP address, and history browsers. If you wish to know more about using Tor on Windows, head over to this website for an in-depth guide. Tor Network also has its drawbacks though. There is a problem users have to face – having these thousands of nodes can seriously affect your browsing performance.
TOR Network is a good choice to hide your online information, but you can’t be sure what servers your information are passing through; it could pass through servers under another ISPs or government agency or a hacker.
3. Use a proxy server
Using a proxy server will help to reroute your traffic. It’s not a very common way to protect your data but a better way to hide your browser activities from ISPs. However, a proxy server cannot secure your online information; your ISP can still see the content of what you’re looking for on your display.
4. Use HTTPS websites
HTTPS websites are the simplest and effective way to get some protection from spying ISP on you. Everyone is very familiar with this website as it appears at the start of many URLs, which means it's hiding your browser history from your ISP. However, your ISP may not see exactly what you’re doing, but they can still track your visited sites. So, in short, they can still gather information about you indirectly.
Conclusion
If you wish to safeguard your online data & information and do not want to take any risk, you must take certain steps. You can use any VPN service (the one you think is safe and secure), use HTTPS websites and other servers, and ensure you are protected on all devices. Rest assured, in this way, you can protect the thousands of bytes of your online data that cannot be used for any mischievous purpose.
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