Technology

5 Easy Ways to Hide your Browsing History

Whether you believe it or not, your internet activity will pass through your ISP (Internet Service Provider), which is purely a dangerous act. 

We can’t fully trust our ISP even though it provides internet service to us. It is a beneficial act, but that does not mean the ISP will not cause us harm. Yes, it will. But in most cases, we are unaware of its villainous role in sharing our data and IP address with other third parties. 

Moreover, for a number of reasons, most people will be unable to identify an effective and efficient solution. Through this article, we hope to inform you about different security measures to help you erase your browsing history from your ISP and prevent it from being revealed. 

Hide Your Browsing History: Follow these 5 easy ways

Further down below, you will find a detailed explanation of the reasons why you should follow those steps if you want to keep your internet activities private and safe. 

1. Go Incognito when browsing

The Incognito mode is a more effective way to hide your browsing history. You can turn on this incognito mode in every browser. It is known by different names based on different browsers. For example, in Google Chrome, it is known as incognito mode, while others call it privacy mode, and so on. 

The principle will not change with names. When you enable incognito mode, your browser will no longer record and save your browsing history as it would in normal browsing mode. Incognito mode is very easy and convenient for home use when you unexpectedly share your device with other people. It is also useful for public use when you are sharing the device with a lot of strangers. 

Incognito or privacy mode prevents all first-party cookies from recording the websites you have visited. This means that those records will no longer be stored and available for later use.

Also, this mode blocks third-party cookies, which can track and analyze your activities once you leave a browsing website. This is for extra safety.

2. Delete cookies after you finish browsing

We usually forget to clear cookies after browsing, right? Are you lazy enough to not do this simple act? Do not think that deleting your search history is enough. 

Deleting your search history or deleting cookies is also equally important, and that should be your ultimate concern. Most commonly, ignorant people tend to accept third-party cookies very easily without even realizing what they have done.

You may have noticed that all websites will ask you to accept the use of cookies whenever you visit a website for the first time. If you ignore it, we are not sure whether it will not come. But this message continues to appear at the top or bottom of the screen just to annoy you until you accept the cookies.

3. Change your DNS settings

The Domain Name System (DNS) functions as the address book of the internet. When you type something in the search bar (splvpn.com, for example), your computer knows where to navigate. Your browser can easily find the link you requested as DNS matches site names to IP addresses.

Bonus Tip: Use SPL VPN to check if your DNS requests are exposed.

If you’re already using a free android VPN like SPL VPN, there is no need to worry about DNS at all. As SPL VPN uses its encrypted DNS on every server to keep your browsing history private from third parties, your device will be kept safe and secure.

4. Secure your browsing history with HTTPS

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a secure version of HTTP and is a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) with the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. HTTPS has gotten an additional layer of authentication and security with the TLS protocol.

In other words, HTTPS is an encrypted version of HTTP. By using HTTPS, you can hide your browsing habits from the prying eyes of snoopers.

To put it in a nutshell, there is no shortcut to hiding your browsing habits from hackers or snoopers. By strictly following the above-mentioned steps, you can anonymously browse with your hidden IP address and can escape from the eagle eyes of any third parties.

5. Browse With VPN

VPN effectively hides your browsing history from your ISP by encrypting all internet traffic. Likewise, a VPN encrypts the internet traffic that passes through the router. An ISP can recognize the size of incoming and outgoing traffic, but one major thing is hidden from its eyes: content. If your only aim is to hide your browsing history from your ISP, a VPN will do the trick.

 A VPN also allows you to bypass your router’s firewall, allowing access to blocked websites.

How does Browsing with VPN Works?

When you browse the web, your internet traffic passes through your router and internet service provider (ISP) before reaching the destination website. 

If you do not use a VPN, all three checkpoints (router, ISP, and website) can see the traffic coming from your computer.

To make your internet extra secure, a VPN adds encryption and a VPN server to the process. Here’s how it goes:

  1.  The VPN encrypts your internet traffic before reaching the destination websites.
  2.  As the encrypted traffic is carried through your router and ISP, neither of them can see its content.
  3.  After decrypting the traffic, the VPN sends it back to the destination website, making it appear as though the traffic came from the server’s IP address instead of yours.

How can a snooper check your online history?

When you visit websites, all the information about your browsing activities will be saved by your internet browser. A snooper can check the following details if he uses the same computer as you.

  • Pictures you’ve seen
  • Your searched keywords
  • A detailed list of all the websites you visited

After finishing your online activities, it’s advisable to delete your browsing history to prevent an abuser from seeing your online activity.

You might not know that an abuser installed a spyware program on a home computer or your mobile telephone to track what you do online. The following data can be collected by using this spyware program:

  • Email address used at the time you log in
  • Passwords
  • Websites you have visited

Does a VPN Hide Browsing History from ISPs?

However, that doesn’t imply that the ISP is blind to your activities. 

They can tell how long you’ve been connected to a VPN based on the encrypted traffic that is headed to the IP address of a VPN server. 

Can a VPN Hide Browsing History from a Router?

We have already seen that a VPN encrypts your internet when passing through an ISP. Similarly, your online activities will never be visible to those with network-level access. 

Is it true that a VPN hides browsing history from Google?

Yes, it is true that a VPN hides your browsing history from Google, but only partially. However, Google can identify the users in another way. For example, your search history is connected to your Google account, so if your browser is logged on, Google can still monitor your browsing history. 

Google also uses certain complex algorithms and techniques to find its users, either for advertising, analytics, or personalizing search results. With the help of these algorithms, it’s an easy task for Google to identify you based on your search patterns, timing, and other metrics. So Google is not capable of seeing your real IP address when you’re connected to a VPN, and personalized search results based on your IP address will not appear.

What Defines ISP Tracking?

To put it in simpler terms, ISP tracking occurs when your ISP monitors what you do on the Internet. They analyze your online traffic in detail to see how you spend your time on the web.

What Data Does Your ISP Collect About You?

Frankly speaking, an ISP can collect a lot more information than you expect. The type of data collected by your ISP varies depending on their terms and conditions and your country’s data retention laws. Now, you will get a detailed overview of the kind of data your ISP might monitor, analyze, and store:

  •  The URLs of websites you access
  •  The web pages you frequently visit
  •  When will you log in or log off the web
  •  How much time do you spend on a particular website or web page
  •  What type of files do you download
  •  How much data do you use
  •  Your search and browsing history
  •  All your unencrypted communications
  •  Any info that you type on unencrypted websites.

Use SPL VPN to hide your browsing history

Now let’s get serious! If you urgently want to keep your browsing habits away from the prying eyes of corporations and the government, let’s SPL. 

It is not only the most convenient option but also the most comprehensive. 

You’ve probably heard of SPL VPN. It is everybody’s favorite one click VPN App and is relatively easy to install on your phone with its simple one-click connection.

SPL is also available for almost all other Android versions, like Lollipop, Marshmallow, Oreo, Nougat, Pie, etc. Once you’re up and running, you can safely browse the web anonymously, and even weasel your way into the edgy corners of the dark web, if that’s your thing.

How to clear your browsing history?

All the browsers will keep a record of the online pages you visited. They have a ‘history’ or ‘favorites’ tab that contains your browsing details. Each browser has a different method of deleting the online history. If you are unaware of how to remove your browsing history, search for instructions.

You have the option to delete individual websites, but this might not delete passwords or cookies. Browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome will give you the option to clear your online history for the last hour or two hours. But, this removes only selected online history, not all the browsing history.

You can’t trust all the websites as some of them have really shady ways of tricking you into storing your data and, ultimately, your browsing history. So, be cautious!

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