I read a bit about using a different DNS for Privacy and I think the best one should be quad9? Or is there anything better except self hosting a DNS?
I use Quad9 for my upstream.
This!
Want something that works fast? NextDNS, Adguard or DNSwatch
Want something a bit more complicated but better for privacy? Setup PiHole + DNSCrypt proxy with anonymized DNS
Using NextDNS for quite long time
I’m using dnscrypt combined with a firewall app. RethinkDNS on android and postmaster on pc.
I use NextDNS, but also use Cloudflare sometimes.
Quad9 is decent, but there’s some weird legislative issues (they can be court ordered to not resolve certain sites) BC weird reasons.
If you have a raspberry pi or similar sitting somewhere, you can set up a pihole DNS with unbound as upstream. Then you’ve got a DNS that’s as private as you want, locally cached and with additional ad/malware/… blocking capabilities.
Use your own. I use unbound.
Use your own.
That may not always be the best way to go, as it’ll make fingerprinting also much easier. The more custom your setup is, the less there are like you, the easier your tracked by fingerprinting techniques.
Not saying it’s bad per se, but the idea that trusting no one and setting everything up yourself is always more private isn’t true either. Both providers and do-it-yourself have negative sides one should stay critical about.
How using selfhosted DNS makes you easier to be tracked?
As I said:
as it’ll make fingerprinting also much easier.
Fingerprinting is a technique where they look at everything they can grab from received requests and try to use that info to identify people. The things you block (like ads and trackers), the used DNS, your user agent, your IP, etc. It’s all used to try to identify you. The more you blend in with others, the harder to identify you are. The more custom stuff you have, the easier to identify you are.
If fingerprinting or not having to trust third parties is more important depends on your threat model. But it’s important to know the risks of a trust-no-one do-it-yourself approach when making the decision.
Well, my question was specifically about DNS. I don’t think that the sites or services you use have any way to know what DNS are you using.
ISP can capture DNS traffic, but this is where threat model comes into play… Like if you are concerned about some entity to collect you profile based on data from ISP which includes both your DNS queries and your IP
Well, you’re right. I was mixing a few things up in my head. My bad. Altrough I did find a few interesting ways that can be used by websites to find client side DNS, it isn’t exactly the norm or likely to hit you with custom setups.
I retract my point on DNS, but the general notion that do-it-yourself isn’t always better stays. Al be it off-topic here now.
Interesting, can you share any links regarding finding client DNS?
There are quite some results if you search online, but here’s one with some specific info: https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/129917/how-does-a-website-know-the-dns-server-a-client-uses
The one from your ISP. Your ISP can see your traffic anyway, so you gain nothing by using a third-party DNS server.
That’s not true at all. If you’re after the fastest DNS for loading / response times then the ISP DNS would be ideal. For privacy you’d want one that can offer ad and tracking protection like NextDNS.
Okay, maybe I got the question wrong. If you care about content blocking, then you are right (though I’d prefer self-hosted resolvers like pi-hole or AdGuard Home over third party resolvers).
You can use pihole as your main resolver and NextDNS as your down stream resolver as well for layered protection. That’s what I do. Works well. NextDNS is free protection up to 300,000 queries a month. If you go over it just acts like any regular resolver. The paid plan is inexpensive too.
If you use the same or similar blocklist it does not provide additional protection though.
That’s true yes.
Mt ISP can’t see my traffic or my DNS lookups lol
Congrats but then you are using more than just another DNS resolver/different DNS technology.
Yes, if you want privacy then you need a good VPN provider
As far as I read (I’m no expert!) they could check the SNI of the TLS handshake if they want. But using the DNS of the ISP is handing them the data right in a way they can analyze/use them very easily afaik?
Still learning about this topic!
They route your traffic, hence they can see all IP addresses you communicate with. With a reverse lookup you can then usually find out the address too.
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I use cloudflare dns
I’m not an expert on what makes a “good DNS”, but I have been using a pi-hole for about 5 years and it has been super stable the whole time, despite my best efforts.
