Can ISP See Your VPN Traffic? Let's Find out

Last updated: April 30, 2024 Reading time: 4 minutes
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ISP See Your VPN Traffic

What if you know that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will be able to track your online activities and sell your Internet history to a third party? The ISP would hand the highest bidder for browsing history with that information.

https://beencrypted.com/how-to-hide-browser-history-from-isp/

According to Google Trends, a massive flux has been reported in VPN searches, whether it is a paid one or a free VPN. That’s a concerning truth by which the US citizens are confronted. Therefore, many people are moving towards an effective privacy tool, a VPN.

A graph raised to a level of more than five years of record of VPN searches also shows that many of the people unfamiliar with the technology also require it for themselves. But, there must be the first thought in many of them: what does my isp see when I use a VPN?

Can your ISP see your VPN?

A VPN service is a tool that creates a secure, encrypted connection between your device from which you are accessing the internet and a private server. The encrypted information your ISP receives is sent through a VPN server to which you are connected. This prevents traffic from snooping or tracking by any third party, including your ISP.

But the question is can ISP see VPN?

The answer to this concern is that an ISP could see that you are connected to a VPN, but they cannot decipher your browsing information.

This means that a VPN converts your traffic into an encrypted form, which is unidentifiable information. Therefore, it prevents the issues and risks of being tracked by an Internet provider and keeps them from selling your browsing history.

The IP allocated to a user is not the one that is displayed to the ISP once connected to a VPN. The VPN server has the IP address that an ISP is presented with, which means what your ISP sees when you use a VPN is just a user browsing the internet. Therefore, neither your identity nor your browsing activity is exposed.

What are the lacks a VPN could persist that makes your data visible to the ISP?

Most of the time, security experts and analysts predict that a VPN could also contain some security lacks. Despite this, many VPN services clearly state to have zero logging rules in their privacy policy. This concept is presented because the traffic of VPN users is available to the VPN providers, who could also use it at any moment.

A suitable VPN could protect you against many risks, including government surveillance, hacking attacks, and ISP tracking and selling your history. However, there are some lacks that an inefficient VPN could contain.

https://beencrypted.com/vpn/check-vpn-connection-actually-encrypted/

Most people are unaware of the recently discovered flaw that could reduce the security efficiency of the VPN by faulting its encryption. A technique known as WebRTC is built-in into almost every browser and can be used by remote sites.

Also, a VPN connection to your device couldn’t restrict your IP revelation if a website uses this technology efficiently. Even though many sites are unaware of this approach, it’s a strong thought that the websites such as Netflix and Hulu, which are already working hard to restrict VPN users, could use this soon.

Test to check the VPN performance

As told before, the techniques and some common security lacks in an ordinary VPN or sometimes in popular VPN services could be risky for your data privacy. Therefore, we have extracted some responsive and simple testing tools through which you can check the credibility of your VPN provider. These tools will give you a broader idea of what your ISP sees when you use a VPN.

DNS Leak Test

The domain name system or DNS changes the human-readable website form, such as Beencrypted.com, into a numerical Internet Protocol Address. Mainly, a VPN changes your previously configured ISP DNS through which ISP could monitor all of your browsing activities.

First, you should ensure from the settings that your DNS is configured to the VPN’s DNS when connected to the service.

With a testing website, VPNInsights.com, you could analyze the DNS leak. Note down your ISP DNS while the VPN is disabled, and check out the IP address and location as displayed by the testing site. Now carry out the same procedure after connecting to the VPN, which should show a different IP address and location according to your VPN.

Conclusion

Most security experts present a common concern that you could never know the reality behind a VPN service. There isn’t a way to figure out what a VPN is doing with their customer’s data, and it’s tough to find out reputable VPN provider among the many.

A simple way out of such privacy risk is to avoid free VPN services, as they are more likely to use alternative ways to gain profit. Also, carefully select a paid VPN and read their privacy policy carefully.

These will minimize your concerns regarding what my ISP sees when I use a VPN, and ISP will not be able to track your browsing activities.

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