Do you often spend hours at your nearest coffee shop? Or, are you someone who sneaks into your neighbor’s house to use the Internet and later wonder if they track your Internet activity?
If you are like many others who have the question “can someone see my Internet history if I use their Wi-Fi”, this blog is a must-read.
Go through the post to know whether someone who has lent you their Internet connection can track your Internet history.
Can Someone See My Internet History If I Use Their Wi-Fi? Truth Revealed!
To put it straight, they cannot access or track what you have been doing on your phone even though you are using their Internet or Wi-Fi.
It is only the Internet Service Provider that can see or view your browsing history. However, if the concerned Wi-Fi provider has got access to your phone, he or she might be able to see your Internet history – unless you have accessed the Internet in incognito mode.
Other ways to get rid of your browsing history and prevent someone from viewing your search history are using a VPN, deleting cookies, and adjusting your Google privacy settings.
Who Can See [ISP]?
Potentially, the Internet Service Provider gets to view everything that you do on your phone using a particular Wi-Fi.
The Wi-Fi admin might get access to your browsing history with the right tools. Right from your every web page to the sites that you are visiting while you are connected to their Wi-Fi network.
While using or accessing a particular page, make sure the web pages that you are accessing have HTTPS://, instead of HTTP://.
Although a Wi-Fi admin might sense what you are reading when you access an HTTPS:// page, he cannot know the exact page. He might note the time duration that you spend on that particular page.
Let’s learn about HTTP and HTTPS (HTTP vs. HTTPS)!
The next time you browse a web page, check whether the page is encrypted or not. That means whether it starts with HTTP:// or HTTPS://.
These are transfer protocols that send and receive data packets over the Internet. HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, while HTTPS stands for an advanced version of HTTP, hence secure.
The latter is the implementation of an SSL or TSL certificate on top of HTTP. It is a global standard security technology that ensures smooth and secure communication between a server and a web browser.
So, when you visit such secure sites, the Wi-Fi admin can’t exactly know the sites that you are on.
Wi-Fi Browsing History
Not just your Internet browsing history but many more things can be monitored by your Wi-Fi provider. Some of the instances would be –
- Source and destination of your IP address
- Time spent on a particular website
- The time duration that you spend online
- The exact time when you connected to the Internet
- Unencrypted HTTP websites data
- Specific URLs that you visit on a particular website
Can Someone See My Internet History If I Use Their Wi-Fi on My Phone?
These days, everyone has a smartphone to chat with a friend on the social media platform or to make an online payment.
When you access the Internet on phone, the Wi-Fi owner might get to know what you are browsing, including –
- Unencrypted HTTP websites data
- Source and destination of your IP address
- Apps that you use
So, the best way to be safe and secure online is to use a VPN.