Credit: Gavin Phillips / MakeUseOf
Published Jan 29, 2026, 6:01 PM EST
Gavin is the Segment Lead for the Technology Explained, Security, Internet, Streaming, and Entertainment verticals, former co-host on the Really Useful Podcast, and a frequent product reviewer. He has a degree in Contemporary Writing pillaged from the hills of Devon, more than a decade of professional writing experience, and his work has appeared on How-To Geek, Expert Reviews, Trusted Reviews, Online Tech Tips, and Help Desk Geek, among others. Gavin has attended CES, IFA, MWC, and other tech-trade shows to report directly from the floor, racking up hundreds of thousands of steps in the process. He's reviewed more headphones, earbuds, and mechanical keyboards than he cares to remember, and enjoys copious amounts of tea, board games, and football.
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HTTPS has to be one of the biggest privacy misnomers out there. In the days when the little padlock popped up in the corner of the address bar, it gave a false sense of privacy, along with the security it actually delivers.
That's because even with HTTPS enabled, your ISP can still build up a surprisingly detailed picture of what you're up to online. Now, there is a feature built into most browsers and operating systems that can change all of that, making it much more difficult for your ISP and most other snoopers to keep tabs on you, and it only takes a moment or two to set up.
DNS over HTTPS won't make you invisible, but it absolutely shuts down one of the biggest accidental privacy leaks you can make—and it's totally free.
What your ISP can see when you browse the web
HTTPS is useful, but it's not completely private
Your internet service provider sits between you and the wider internet. Every website request, every connection, and every packet of data passes through infrastructure they control, which gives them a privileged view of your activity.
Even with HTTPS protecting the contents of your traffic, there is still plenty of metadata exposed by default. For example, your ISP can typically see the domains you request, the IP addresses you connect to, the timestamps of your activity, and the volume of data transferred.
However, with HTTPS, they can't see the exact page you're reading, which is a huge positive we didn't have with HTTP, the older standard. Your ISP also cant't see your passwords, or the contents of messages sent over HTTPS, but the destination alone is often enough to figure out what you're up to.
Basically, they might not know exactly what you're looking at, but they absolutely know where you are and how long you're there, and that can all add up over time to create a specific profile. In that, if you spend a heap of time visiting health sites, your ISP may assume you're unwell, have a condition, or are a hypochondriac. Spend loads of time on dating sites, and, well, you get the picture.
DNS over HTTPS protects the rest
Well, almost everything
Credit: Gavin Phillips / MakeUseOf
Unfortunately, something is giving up your privacy: DNS requests. The Domain Name System (DNS) is essentially the internet’s phone book. When you type a web address like makeuseof.com, your device needs to ask a DNS server which IP address that domain corresponds to before it can connect.
Most devices use the default ISP settings to process these requests, which allows your internet provider to see what you're up to, even if you have other privacy extensions and HTTPS enabled.
This is where DNS over HTTPS (DoH) comes in. DoH encrypts your DNS requests and sends them over the same secure HTTPS channel used for normal web traffic. Instead of asking your ISP’s DNS server to process your request, your browser sends that question inside an encrypted connection to a secure DNS provider like Cloudflare, Google, Quad9, or NextDNS.
This is absolutely not limited to your browser. You can enable DNS over HTTPS in your operating system, so it applies to everything you do—but more on this in a moment.
Switching to DoH effectively removes this view into your online life from your ISP. The requests you make are encrypted, so protected from prying eyes. Your ISP will see that you're connecting to Cloudflare, for example, but it won't see the individual domain lookups.
There's always a catch, especially when it comes to privacy
DoH is great, but you're not completely anonymous
Credit: Gavin Phillips / MakeUseOf
I know, I know; it all sounded so good and easy. But the problem is that DNS over HTTPS does not make you anonymous. Your ISP can still see the IP addresses you connect to, and in many cases, those IPs can be linked back to specific services. In many cases, your ISP can make a well-educated guess based on traffic patterns, connection timing, and data volumes.
That doesn't mean DoH isn't worth using, mind. At MakeUseOf, we consider privacy to be a game of layers, and DNS over HTTPS is just one of the layers of the privacy cake. It might not secure you on its own, but alongside other privacy features, it's extremely useful.
DoH isn't all about privacy, either. It has other functions, too, such as protecting against DNS hijacking, where networks manipulate DNS responses to inject ads, block sites, or redirect traffic. It also reduces what can be seen by anyone else on the same Wi-Fi network, which still matters on public hotspots, hotels, and shared connections.
DNS over HTTPS is wonderfully simple to switch on
It was time for some good news
You'll be pleased to know that turning DNS over HTTPS on is a straightforward process, almost no matter the process. DoH also goes by different names depending on the browser. For example, it's known as secure DNS in Chrome and Edge, while Firefox calls it DNS over HTTPS.
Given how similar the steps to enable DNS over HTTPS are across all modern browsers, I'm not going to detail how it works for each one (especially as so many modern browsers are based on Google's Chromium project). However, I tried to find the DoH settings in the most popular browsers, including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Vivaldi (Safari doesn't support DoH at the browser level, but it is available in macOS), and the following steps worked each time:
- Open your browser and head to the Settings menu.
- Input DNS in the search bar.
- Scroll through and find the highlighted DNS sections, then toggle either secure DNS or DNS over HTTPS.
Your in-browser DNS requests are now encrypted and hidden from sight. Well, not hidden from sight, but no one can look at them in transit.
Related
Enable DoH in your operating system for system-wide protection
Personally, I'd go one step further
Remember when I said you can enable DoH for your whole operating system? This is where the magic happens. Switching DNS over HTTPS across your whole OS means every request made on your system is encrypted, not just those coming from your browser.
It's a bit like using a VPN installed on your system and a VPN browser extension; the former offers protection for everything, while the extension only protects your browser.
Like DoH in your browser, this process varies between operating systems—except this time, I do have you covered for all major operating systems. Start by choosing a secure DNS provider that offers DNS over HTTPS; I'd suggest going for Quad 9 and using Cloudflare for backup.
Provider
IPv4 DNS Addresses
IPv6 DNS Addresses
Cloudflare
- 1.1.1.1
- 1.0.0.1
- 2606:4700:4700::1111
- 2606:4700:4700::1001
Quad9
- 9.9.9.9
- 149.112.112.112
- 2620:fe::fe
- 2620:fe::9
Then, you'll need to head into the internet connection settings in your operating system.
How to change your Windows 11 DNS settings
- Press Win + X to open the Power User Menu and select Network Connections.
- Select Advanced network settings. Then, select the network adapter you're using, be that Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
- From the dropdown, alongside More adapter options, select Edit.
- Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties. Then, navigate to the Use the following DNS server addresses option. Now, enter one of the IP addresses from the section above, depending on which DNS provider you want to use. Once entered, click OK to save these settings.
- You'll be returned to the Properties menu. From here, select Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and click Properties. Repeat the process for IPv6 DNS servers. Click OK to save your IPv6 DNS settings.
Once you're done, close the settings window. You can start browsing the web once again.
How to change your macOS DNS settings
To change your DNS on macOS:
- Open System Preferences.
- Click Network > Advanced.
- Navigate to the DNS tab.
- Unlike on Windows, you can add and remove DNS servers using the + and - buttons on the window's bottom left. Once you've clicked the + icon, you can enter the IP address of your desired provider.
Like Windows, once you confirm the settings, your new DNS provider will be in use.
How to change your DNS settings on Linux
Given the numerous Linux distributions, the method for changing DNS varies. Furthermore, you can change your DNS settings on Linux via the user interface or through the command line, adding extra options. Considering this, I won't delve into how to change DNS settings on each Linux distribution; that would be a mammoth undertaking. However, you can check out how to change your Linux DNS settings in GNOME, KDE, and using the terminal, as well as how to change your DNS settings on Ubuntu.
Related
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Don't expect magically faster speeds, but it's worth making this tweak for the incremental speed boosts.
You're not anonymous, but it's much better than nothing
Switching DoH on only takes a moment and offers a significant privacy boost. Yes, you can just opt for the browser version, but if you're serious about protecting your online searches and DNS requests, just take the extra leap and enable it in your operating system, too.
I won't deny that there are some trade-offs. DNS encryption is useful, no doubt, but the reality is that you're moving your trust from your ISP to another third-party. Some folks believe this is merely passing the buck rather than dealing with the root of the problem.
However, I disagree and believe that in the end, DNS over HTTPS is a simple privacy-focused choice to make.