A noob webdsite, lvl1techs question

Dev Zone Web Development
1

With all the recent talk of ISP logging. why do some forums Print the URL and others Number Mask ?

For example although politics is removed from this site, if for example someone was to create a thread with keywords in

https//forum.level1techs.com/politics/nukes/howtokilleveryoneever/ (insert any related trigger word )

Even if it was benign in content and the content itself is https. It still provides the ISP with information on your viewing habits based does it not ?

I told you it was a noob question lol.

2

That my friend, is Search Engine Optimization, SEO for short.
In essence, writing out these URL's makes them readable by puny humans like us, and by webcrawlers. That way, Google tends to pick up links to specific products or threads rather than just the homepage, which makes it way easier to find you page. And the more people on your site, the bigger the profit.

4

If you are afraid of it, use a VPN. Seems to me like the best option to avoid any spying

5

I don't think it's a good solution. Or rather, its an excessive solution to a minimal problem.

6

IMO better solution than asking websites to change and making them less accessible. The accessibility outweighs the inconvenience of having to grab a VPN if you're paranoid.

Besides, what's the issue with your ISP logging that? They are probably never going to look into it, and if they for some reason want to investigate you, they are going to go deep enough to click links anyhow.

7

It was merely a noob question. A VPN might end up not being legal for private use and it also has its own pitfalls.

8

no. you're underestimating the severity of the problem(s), and overestimating the complexity of the solution. use a VPN.

9

If were using Level1tecks as an example; the ISP can't see the url that you go to because this site HTTPS.

This is because the internet is built in layers, forum.level1techs.com is the tcp part (isp can see this) but the is https /politics/nukes/howtokilleveryoneever/ they can not see that you went to that page.

Now the ISP can see that you went to forum.level1techs.com and they you load some many webpages and how long you were their.