Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation when you click on links to products in this post. For an explanation of my Advertising Policy, visit this page. Thanks for reading!
Can a VPN provider see my traffic?
The answer for the most part is, yes. In fact, all VPN companies can see not only your traffic, but history as well.
However, it may have what’s called a no-log policy. This means that they, at least, technically, don’t keep logs or records of their clients traffic.
This is debatable however, since there are other factors in which logs may be kept and not necessarily discarded.
Assuming that the VPN service does not keep logs, then yes, they can still see your traffic. VPNs make it possible for users to pretend to be from a certain location, merely by having the user’s Internet traffic pass through an external server.
In doing so, websites automatically think that you are from this location and your IP address will reflect that. So whether or not the VPN provider keeps logs doesn’t really matter in this case.
However, there are other factors that can come into play such as DNS leaks and more. If the VPN provider is not doing their job correctly then this may be an issue for you.
Can a VPN provider see my history?
The answer for this question is also “yes”. However, most people tend to mix up the question of “can they see what I am doing” with “can they see my history”.
A VPN provider can only see what you are doing right now. They cannot, however, see what you have done in the past.
This is due to the fact that all traffic passes through their own anonymous VPN server. Since all the traffic is encrypted and it is impossible to tell who did what, then the VPN provider cannot see your history.
However, they can see that you have been using their service because all of your traffic passes through their servers.
To bypass this issue many people just create a fake email account to sign up for such services. It’s also a good idea to use a prepaid credit card as well.
Can I trust VPN providers?
There are many out there that have been providing this service for quite some time now without an issue.
However, as with any service or product, there will always be those that cut corners and don’t provide the best quality product or service.
In this case, VPN providers have been known to log data and even expose their users when authorities come knocking at their door.
This is usually in an effort to try and minimize the damage done by not having client data logged.
Authorities can then identify a user from said logs that was found on the server once the VPN company hands them over.
A VPN provider should only be used as a safeguard to protect your privacy. It doesn’t matter what kind of service they provide, you shouldn’t trust them with anything other than your privacy and anonymity.
This is because it’s possible for them to go rogue and expose all their user data in an effort to minimize damage.
Can a VPN provider see passwords and other information passed to HTTPS sites?
No. A VPN provider (or anybody else) using an HTTPS proxy only sees the encrypted data stream between your browser and the destination website.
They cannot tell what type of data is in this connection, nor could they see any information about you or the websites you’re visiting beyond that encrypted stream to/from your browser.
What can a VPN provider see?
The only information a VPN provider can see is the connection between their servers and your ISP, if anything. If you use an HTTP proxy rather than a VPN they may also see some of your unencrypted traffic to/from other websites.
If you send plaintext passwords or other sensitive data to websites, a VPN provider could see the destination of these packets (unless you use HTTPS encrypted connections).
Can my VPN provider see my search history?
Possibly, if you are logged into your browser when using an HTTP proxy (see above), the VPN provider could see the websites you’re visiting.
If you use HTTPS connections to sites like Google or Facebook they will not be able to tell what data is in these encrypted streams.
Can a VPN provider see my IP address?
When you connect to a VPN service, your computer establishes an encrypted connection (called a tunnel) with the end of the VPN.
All packets that travel between your computer and the VPN server will be seen by them.
Packets entering at one end of the tunnel come out the other end, but nobody in between can see what was sent, only where it was sent from and where it’s going.
A VPN provider cannot see your computer’s IP address or any other information about you that would identify who you are since they only see the source/destination of packets within their end of the tunnel.
This is one reason why VPNs are used to anonymize web surfing, people who want to hide their IP address use a VPN.
Since your IP address always stays the same while you’re connected to a VPN, many people who want to be anonymous will run a “virtual” private network on their computer which spoofs an IP address belonging to the VPN provider.
When you do this, it can appear that all of your traffic is coming from the VPN server, not your actual computer.
The VPN provider can see how much data you are sending/receiving if they cap your bandwidth (this is common with consumer-level services), or have limits on specific types of traffic. They cannot, however, see what type of data this contains.
*NOTE* The information above applies to the most common type of VPNs, called remote-access VPNs. Other types might be more suitable depending on your needs and what you’re trying to achieve. For example:
– If you want all your traffic to always come from a certain IP address (e.g., proxy servers or other proxies), use a dynamic DNS service.
– If you want to anonymize BitTorrent or other P2P traffic, use an encrypted proxy service like BT Guard . This type of service encrypts all your traffic including peer-to-peer applications so nobody can see what data is contained in the packets.
Do VPNs track your browsing?
VPN providers are not common carriers like ISPs, so they do not have to track what you do with their service.
VPN services can and do log your traffic (even the encrypted data stream between you and the VPN server) but these logs are meaningless since nobody can tell what type of data is in the connection.
A few years ago there was a scandal involving a university which was found to have been spying on all their students by inspecting traffic from the school’s VPN service.
The “logging” they were performing was more of a data-mining operation, where they were looking for patterns in web browsing habits and then correlating this information with other databases.
The only time a VPN provider would want to inspect your packet data is when they support specific types of services (e.g., peer-to-peer or video streaming) which can be used with their service, but are also often used for copyright infringement.
Can a VPN provider see my browsing history?
“Logs” refers to the user’s browsing history and data, not connection data.
VPN providers keep logs of all VPN connections which include the time, duration and IP address of the server the customer connected to.
This type of information is used for maintaining their service, such as ensuring that users don’t exceed download limits or use more servers than they are allowed.
VPN providers typically do not use this information for any other purpose unless it is required to identify abuse of their service or in some countries, where laws require the provider to store connection logs for a certain period of time.
The reason your browsing habits aren’t tracked by your ISP doesn’t have anything to do with the technology of the VPN. It’s simply that your ISP doesn’t know which website you’re visiting because it is concealed using an anonymizing service (the VPN).
Can my ISP see when I use a VPN?
Your ISP cannot see what websites you are visiting when you use a VPN, but they can tell that you are sending/receiving data to/from an anonymizing service.
What information do VPNs log?
VPN providers don’t have to record connection logs for users, but if they do support P2P then this will probably be the only data that is logged. This enables the VPN company to manage their network efficiently and deal with any abuse of their servers or other illegal activity.
A VPN provider cannot see what type of data is contained in the connection, but they can tell that you are connecting to an anonymizing service and the duration of the connection (i.e., how long you’re using their service for).
Can a VPN provider see my traffic? Conclusions.
In conclusion, as surprising as this may sound to some, but, yes, a VPN can see your traffic. That does not mean that they spy on you or steal your data, but it DOES mean that they could if they wanted to. If you don’t want them to see your data – use a proxy (which is most likely even worse than using no anonymization at all).
If you want privacy and security, please use only encrypted services that block any third party interference, such as HTTPS Everywhere and/or a good VPN. If you don’t want those services to see your data – use public SSL proxies or TOR.
But the best way to protect your anonymity is still, not to reveal it at all: pay with a cryptocurrency, virtual debit card, even cash and only buy non-logging VPN + Proxy services. If you’re not sure, always ask!
