How do I stop the Wi-Fi owner from seeing my history?

Can my parents see what I search on Wi-Fi?

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question but since most people in Wi-Fi are probably parents I thought it'd be OK to put it here.

I am 15 years old. I have a laptop, iPod touch, iPad and my dad has android tablet. We live in Germany. My mum and dad see what I search on Facebook (like the time when we accidentally logged into the game World of Warcraft in the living room instead of our computer). They know what programs I install and delete. They can tell what websites I'm on and who I'm talking with.

The thing is, I have a good relationship with my parents so there's no need for concern. However, I am curious if they actually really can see everything I search or download on the Internet, what sites I'm on, who I'm talking to and so on.

I could imagine that in our case it's not so different as to worry about but is it really possible to see what we are doing? Does my dad have access to all the websites and applications I visit every day? What about apps? My brother and my mum can see what I search for in Google and sometimes they even call me when I'm looking at porn websites or downloading files. In Germany, the age of majority is 18. If you use Google's WiFi service (and you will probably be using it), you are agreeing to the Google Terms and Conditions at that age. These terms say:

You may browse the Web as you wish, but you must be clear about your activities and how they appear to other users. You are responsible for everything that appears on your network. This includes content that was shared by you, for example if you access a wireless network at a caf, the owner of the caf may have rights in the contents available on the Internet and may remove the material that violates these rights, if he or she does, he or she will get in contact with you.

Your parent(s) are the only authorized persons to view information on your account provided they have agreed to the conditions listed above. As an alternative, you may connect to a wireless network at your school, office, etc. You must keep your wireless router password confidential and avoid sharing it with others.

Can I see what websites have been visited on my Wi-Fi?

I have a wireless router with a single user name and password.

That's how my company set it up when we first got the router (a Netgear WNDR4500). I like the fact that I can control everything from the web page of the router - so I can turn off the wireless network for other people in the office (I have a desk down there), set a time limit, and turn on and off some things.

However, I am getting more than one browser tab for a webpage, which has the username/password and the last visited website. What is the best way to stop this? I don't want this information at all.

2 Answers.
Assuming your router runs on an OS which supports web interface management, there are several methods to prevent such a feature from appearing in the web interface of your router. The most basic way to do this is just to delete the history and cookies created by your browser. The easiest way to do this is to install an extension to your browser, such as the ClearHistory or CookieCleaner Add-ons. You might also be able to adjust settings within your browser itself to do this.

However, if you are not willing to compromise with the privacy of your web usage, or you're using a custom browser with no extensions available, then the next method to get rid of this data would be using the command line. If you're using Linux or Mac OS X, the command is: netstat --broadcast. For Windows, you'll want to use the Network Tools application. You'll need to select the IP address of your router.

From there, you'll want to open a terminal (you can find many guides to doing this on the Internet) and type: netsh. You can then issue commands from the command prompt to tell the router what to do. For instance, here is what I've done on my router to make it not broadcast information regarding websites.

First, I've blocked the broadcasting of website information, so that it won't show up in the netstat results. Here's the command to block it.

The next two are to modify what the router broadcasts, so that we can have it not broadcast info on websites that we visit. Then, we configure that broadcast to go through the router's internet gateway, rather than directly to the Internet.

Can a Wi-Fi owner see your browsing history?

The short answer is no, but you can keep an eye on your neighbor's.

New research from University of Michigan privacy and computer science experts published in the ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction describes how to track someone's Web browsing history from a private WiFi network. The technique, based on recent browser developments and known bugs, could be applied without the owner's consent.

WiFi routers are set to automatically share their network name and passwords with their owners, according to an article on Ars Technica, so a neighbor could potentially spy on the device owner. In theory, we're looking at having a neighbor sitting right next to me with cameras able to record my browsing, said U-M computer science doctoral student Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye. They may not be able to tell what sites I'm visiting, but they might be able to determine that I'm visiting Facebook or that I have bookmarked certain things.

A researcher at the University of Michigan has identified a flaw in the way most modern browsers store the sites that a user visits while connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot, a problem that might put those browsing histories within reach of prying eyes. Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, a Ph.D. Student working with co-author Susan Dumais in the university's Security and Privacy Lab, told the Daily Dot that he and his colleagues have found a vulnerability in recent browser features that could enable a neighbor to watch his browsing history and determine if the site being visited is something like Facebook.

I don't want to say it's easy, but I want to say it's possible, de Montjoye told the Daily Dot in an e-mail. He declined to say how much effort it would take to exploit the flaw and how long it would take for a hacker to create such software, except to say that the process wouldn't take more than a day.

One of the biggest changes to web browsers in years has come with cookies, small text files stored on the computers of visiting websites.

How do I stop the Wi-Fi owner from seeing my history?

My house is Wi-Fi protected, and I have to sign in to my own Wi-Fi network.

However, if I connect from an IP address that isn't mine, the Wi-Fi owner will see my history. How do I prevent this?

Note: This question originally referred to network-level controls, but those are more useful for larger networks with a more complicated Wi-Fi infrastructure. This question is about Wi-Fi client controls.

You can use Wifi Analyzer to avoid sharing of your network history. It allows you to see all the traffic generated by your connection to the Internet and also allows you to track other devices connected to your home's Wi-Fi network. Wifi Analyzer is good, but you could always just use a VPN for your own connection. That way, you're not sharing anything on your network anyway, and it's easier to control.