Yes. Encrypted traffic is still traffic and can still be measured.
And even captured. Just not read by any normal organization.
Or read at a later date when an encryption vulnerability is discovered
Yes! In fact ISPs can use fingerprinting techniques to match websites with known data transmission patterns (ping, badwidth, packet timing, etc) to guess what websites you might be accessing even through an encrypted vpn. Some vpns (like mullvad and probably others) will throw in false data packets to thwart this type of fingerprinting.
As everyone else has said, yes.
There are tools that conduct random traffic patterns out the VPN though continuously to obfuscate your usage…
Basically you make sure none of your traffic transits anything except the VPN, including DNS. The tool pulls random spikes of traffic, just junk in different sizes, anyone watching will only see the VPN traffic.
Think of it this way, you want to mail stuff, and your neighbor can run over and look at the outbound labels on your boxes, so instead you mail everything to a proxy service who then remails it.
They can still see you mail things though… Right?
So instead you send thousands of boxes filled with different weights of junk to the proxy with directions to dump most of them, and your real shipments are mixed in there, the neighbors won’t know which box is real and which is junk or if it’s all real, they just won’t know.
The key is to maintain a consistent randomness, making it difficult to pin down.
Of course.
Lots of cybercrime has been solved by law-enforcement by matching traffic logs based on timestamps and throughput.
DNS over HTTPS is for security and not privacy. Your ISP can still see what websites you visit.
Yes, use any other DNS other than your provider. Adgaurd at minimum, PI hole with advanced lists is better. Both even better.
I agree using something like Cloudflare or Quad9 is better then not using it at all, and making sure to turn on DNS over HTTPS is massive benefit. But as shown in my previous linked video even with this turned on a ISP can see/snoop DNS queries.
A VPN would help obscure website you visit through the VPN, but your ISP would still see the connection to the VPN’s IP address.
Though now comes the question of how much you trust that particular VPN.
True. It’s a lesser of two evils … Comcast vs Proton though, no brainer.
