For the last few years the question of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) selling your data has been up for debate. Put simply, in the United States, Canada and most Western countries it was illegal for ISP’s to sell your data, but that all changed in 2017 when then US President Trump walked back internet privacy rules.

Today several investigations are underway to determine if ISP’s are selling your data. However, even if they are not, it is clear that you are unlikely to be aware that they have started to sell it in the future, until months or years after it has already happened.

WHAT CAN YOUR INTERNET PROVIDER SEE?

Obviously, the company that connects you to the internet (your ISP) can see all of your internet activity. They are the ones pulling and pushing the data to and from your computer. This means they know:

1. When You Are Home: Most people are connected to the internet in one way or another all day long:
   1. when your homes internet activity is low (i.e. just an internet connected thermostat) they know you are away
   2. when your mobile phone data usage drops to near zero, they can guess you are on WiFi, likely at home
2. Where You Live: If we are talking about home internet service, the company obviously knows where you live
3. What Type of Mobile Phone/Tablet/Laptop You Use: Most internet providers now supply internet with integrated WiFi so you no longer need to buy and configure your own WiFi router. When your cell or tablet is connected it is usually easy for the ISP to determine what type of device you have and sometimes even the version of operating system (i.e. iOS7 vs iOS10)
4. What Sites You Are Visiting: DNS stands for Domain Naming Service and it is nothing more than the internets phone book. Humans like to use names (like ) while your computer needs numbers (like .29), so when you do anything on the internet with a name your ISP will use its DNS to change it into a number. That DNS query is recorded as coming from your computer. Read more