DNS Lookups
DNS (Domain Name System) lookups are network requests that translate human-readable domain names into IP addresses, enabling devices to locate and connect to websites and services. When you enter a URL in your browser or access an online resource, your device must perform a DNS lookup to find the corresponding server’s address. By default, these requests are sent in plain text to your Internet Service Provider’s DNS resolver, which means your ISP can see which websites and services you access.
Privacy Concerns
Standard DNS lookups expose your browsing activity because the requests are unencrypted. Your ISP, network administrators, or other parties monitoring network traffic can observe which domains you query, creating a detailed log of your online activity even if the websites themselves use HTTPS encryption. This visibility into DNS queries represents a significant privacy gap for users concerned about surveillance or tracking.
Encrypted DNS
To address these privacy limitations, encrypted DNS protocols have been developed, including DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and DNS over TLS (DoT). These methods encrypt DNS lookups between your device and the DNS resolver, preventing ISPs and network observers from seeing which sites you visit. By routing DNS queries through encrypted channels, users can maintain query privacy while still resolving domain names normally. However, encrypted DNS does not provide complete anonymity, as the DNS resolver itself still receives unencrypted query information and can theoretically log user activity.