[SOLVED] Does router company see what sites we browse?

[modemmer]

Does router company see what sites we browse?

 

[DrummerManSpike]

Your Internet Service Provider? Usually yeah, they have the ability to look at how you use your internet for any purpose. That's standard for pretty much every online service. The problem arises from a company storing, saving, and/or selling that information. If you're worried about your privacy, give whoever your provider is a call and ask if they actively track or store any of that information. If they do store that info, and they refuse to delete it when asked, you might wanna look at getting a different ISP. Double check the laws in your area too. In some places, storing/selling that information can be illegal for the company to do, and the laws around them change constantly.

 

[kanewolf]

Does router company see what sites we browse?

Most sites use HTTPS. So the content you get from a website is not generally visible. Somebody can see what web site names (URLs) you lookup. Even that is slowing moving to encrypted traffic. So your ISP can see some things but not most.

 

[bill001g]

The router does not have the power to collect the data and send it to the router company even if it was programmed to do so.

You should always assume someone is looking at your data for invalid purposes even if it is just to spam you with advertising.

You best option is to always use HTTPS, almost every sites runs that already. Then change the DNS in your PC to 1.1.1.1 and use the chrome browser. This prevents anyone from seeing the site names you are using. This is the last small hole ISP were using to spy on people. The google DNS at 8.8.8.8 and the firefox browser are also suppose to support encrypted DNS but I have not kept up on the status, they both had some early implementation issues.

If you are really concerned use a VPN. VPN is not as needed now that we have HTTPS but many people use it to get around regional content restrictions and you still have the bit torrent kids stealing their games and movies and can't take the risk of doing that form their own IP address.

 

[modemmer]

I actually asked it for router companies, not ISP given routers.
The router companies have more functional admin interface and they have their own ios apps which logs device info, mac address, received/sent mbytes etc...

 

[kanewolf]

I actually asked it for router companies, not ISP given routers.
The router companies have more functional admin interface and they have their own ios apps which logs device info, mac address, received/sent mbytes etc...

The router manufacturer is no different than than the ISP. HTTPs is encrypted traffic all the way from the browser. DNS traffic is generally unencrypted. So site names, from DNS can be visible.

 

[COLGeek]

I actually asked it for router companies, not ISP given routers.
The router companies have more functional admin interface and they have their own ios apps which logs device info, mac address, received/sent mbytes etc...

Why would a router company (manufacturer) want this information? Not useful to them.

Theoretically, you could come up with a scenario where router logs are "shared", but to what end?