DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) is a feature that encrypts your DNS traffic, preventing your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and other third parties from seeing the websites you visit. You can easily enable it in the security settings of modern web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge to significantly improve your browsing privacy.
What is DNS and Why is it a Privacy Risk?
Think of the Domain Name System (DNS) as the phonebook of the internet. When you type a website name like www.google.com into your browser, your computer sends a DNS query to find its corresponding IP address (e.g., 142.250.184.142).
Traditionally, these DNS queries are sent in plaintext. This means your ISP, your network administrator, or anyone snooping on the network can see a complete list of every single website you visit, even if the websites themselves are secured with HTTPS.
How Does DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) Fix This?
DoH is a simple but powerful solution. It wraps your DNS queries inside a regular HTTPS request, the same encrypted protocol used to secure communication with websites. By doing this, your DNS requests become indistinguishable from your other encrypted web traffic.
This effectively hides your browsing history from outside observers on the network, preventing your ISP from logging and selling your browsing data or a hacker on public Wi-Fi from seeing where you are going online.
How to Enable DNS-over-HTTPS (Step-by-Step)
Enabling DoH is very easy in most modern browsers.
For Google Chrome:
- Go to Settings.
- Click on Privacy and security, then Security.
- Scroll down and enable the “Use secure DNS” toggle.
- You can let it choose a provider automatically or select a specific one like Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or Google (Public DNS).
For Mozilla Firefox:
- Go to Settings.
- Click on Privacy & Security.
- Scroll down to the “Enable DNS over HTTPS” section.
- Select your preferred level of protection and choose a provider.
For Microsoft Edge:
- Go to Settings.
- Click on Privacy, search, and services.
- Scroll down to the Security section and enable “Use secure DNS”.
Is DoH a Perfect Privacy Solution?
While DoH is a major privacy improvement, it’s important to understand its limitation. It hides your DNS queries from your ISP, but the DoH provider you choose (e.g., Google, Cloudflare) can now see this information. This is why it’s crucial to select a reputable provider with a strong privacy policy. For most users, trusting a specialized DNS provider is more private than trusting an ISP that is known to monetize user data.