Can my internet service provider see if I’m using a VPN?

Using a VPN is a great way to increase your privacy while online – the sites you visit won’t be able to identify you by your IP address, which means it can make you in a different country. However, you may be wondering if your internet service provider can see that you are using a VPN, and if so, if that matters. Find out if my internet service provider can see if I’m using a VPN

Can my internet service provider see if I’m using a VPN?

Can my ISP see if I’m using a VPN?

The answer to the first part is simple: yes, your ISP could determine that you are using a VPN if they wanted to.

This is due to the way a VPN works: when you use the Internet without a VPN, you connect from your computer to your ISP’s system, which in turn connects to the site you want to visit; it’s a bit more complicated than that, but for our purposes it’s enough.

When you connect through a VPN, you go from your ISP to the VPN service’s server and then to a site. This makes it appear to that site that you are using the VPN server’s IP address and hopefully trick them into thinking you are someone else, somewhere else. Note, however, that without incognito mode activated, you could still be identified very easily.

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What does my ISP see?

VPNs differ from proxies in that they encrypt your connection through what is called a secure tunnel. This encrypts your computer’s connection to the VPN’s server, usually using an advanced encryption method like AES-256 that can theoretically only be cracked by someone with a few billion years to spare.

The tunnel makes it so that the site you visit can only see your fake IP address (the VPN’s IP address), but it also works the other way around. When an ISP looks at the connection you made and asks to know where it’s going, all they get is random garbage. It can see that you’re making a connection, it can even figure out the IP address you’re connecting to, but nothing beyond that.

Of course, retrieving random junk is a telltale sign that a VPN is being used. An ISP can find out quite easily which connections lead to a VPN – just look at the ones that send a lot of encrypted data. There’s just no realistic way to find out which VPN, not without finding out from the people who rent the server space, and they’ll never tell, or what you’re accessing through a VPN.

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Do ISPs care if you use a VPN?

That leads to the second part of the question, if ISPs care that you’re using a VPN. The answer is probably that it depends on your geographic location. In most of the world, we can assume that ISPs generally don’t care.

Whether you connect to a VPN server or to a random site, it’s probably the same for them. After all, many people use VPNs to remotely connect to work networks. A VPN you are using for privacy looks the same.

However, there is one big exception to this rule: dictatorships like China, Iran, and a host of other countries have made VPNs illegal. In those countries, most ISPs will be state-owned or have some form of state-imposed control, which means there is a chance that someone else will control the connections.

We know that the Chinese authorities will impose fines for VPN use and there are rumors that the government has developed VPN tracking technology. We can speculate that these programs may collect information about which connections are sending encrypted data and thus identify them, but we’re not sure.

VyprVPN is a VPN service that claims to have connection protocols that can fool the Chinese detection system, we guess it makes the VPN tunnel look like a normal connection somehow.

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What about ISPs that sell data?

Another set of countries where ISPs may not be as happy with customers using VPNs are those where it is legal to track and sell user data, such as the United States. Although we don’t have evidence of this, we can imagine that ISPs aren’t too happy with VPN users, as that means there’s a lot less information to sell.

However, since VPN use is legal and there is no way to mandate how people can use their internet connection, there is little ISPs can do to stop customers who choose to use a VPN.

Whatever the case, it may be a smart move to use a VPN and deny your ISP the opportunity to collect your data. We have put together a guide to find available, but if you want a shortcut, we recommend ExpressVPN for most people, most of the time.

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