Apple and Cloudflare have jointly developed a new Internet protocol that aims to protect privacy usersby ' preventing Internet service providers (ISPs) from seeing the sites they visit.
Currently, when users type an address into their browser, that address is passed to a Domain Name Server (DNS) that looks up the domain name to convert it to the IP address required to connect to it...
By default, this DNS is managed by your ISP. This means that the ISP knows who you are and what sites you visit. What’s worse is that some ISPs sell this data to advertisers. Some DNS queries are encrypted, but the company running the DNS service can still see the data.
TechCrunch reports that the new DNS protocol, developed by Apple and Cloudflare, is designed to prevent ISPs from tracking the sites users visit:
“Called Oblivious DNS-over-HTTPS, or ODoH, the new protocol makes it much harder for internet providers to know which sites you visit […]
How it works: ODoH adds a layer of encryption around the DNS query and passes it through a proxy server, which acts as an intermediary between the user and the site they want to visit. Because the DNS query is encrypted, the proxy server can't see what's inside, but it acts as a shield so that the DNS resolver can't see who sent the query."
“What ODoH needs to do is separate the information about who is making the query and what the query contains/is,” said Nick Sullivan, principal researcher at Cloudflare.
In other words, ODoH ensures that only the proxy knows the user's identity and that the DNS resolver only knows the site being requested. Sullivan said that users will not notice any significant changes in browsing speed or page load times.
Note that ODoH is effective if two different organizations run the proxy server and DNS service. There aren't many yet, although Cloudflare works with a few through the 1.1.1.1 DNS service.
While Apple and Cloudflare have done the groundwork, it's currently just a proposed protocol. To be implemented, it will need to be approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force, the organization that oversees the approval of new protocols.
What you can do for now to prevent ISPs from seeing the sites you visit is to use a DNS that is not run by your ISP or use a reliable VPN. (e.g. Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 backup or Google's 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 backup).
For iOS devices:
Go to Settings > Wi-Fi, then tap the blue “i” icon next to your Wi-Fi network.
Scroll down to Configure DNS, select “Manual” and then click “Add Server” to add the ones you want.
For Mac:
Go to > System Preferences > Network. Then, click either WiFior Ethernet adapter. Click the Advanced button, then the DNS tab. Click the “+” sign to add the servers you want to use and delete any you don’t want.
Source: 9to5mac.com
