What your ISP can see?

What your ISP (Internet Service Provider) knows about you?

Well, they know a lot. Usually they don’t examine your web browsing log unless there is a specific reason for it (like information request from police etc.)

They can track what websites you visited, what files you uploaded/downloaded to/from where. However, if your files are encrypted, they cannot examine the content.

However, they cannot see any information you transfer via https sites. For example, when you connect to your bank via https sites, they can’t see your password, account statement etc. Although they can still track which bank you connected to. This is analogous to what your phone operator sees. They can check what number you dialed but may not necessarily interpret what you talked over phone.

If you connect via proxy server, they can see that you connected to a proxy server but can’t track what you are doing after connecting to that proxy. Any browsing you do thru proxy is not visible to your ISP. Same goes for VPN. Once you are connected to VPN (note that ISP sees that you connected to a VPN) anything you do inside VPN is not visible to ISP.

If you use any anonymous IP address altering software, your ISP can see that. But any website you visit, they see your fictitious IP address.

Your computer also keeps lots of information about your browsing – unless you always browse in private mode.

 

Tags: computer, web