How to protect privacy from a router that logs websites visited

[frozenthermometer]

i have a few questions for anyone with a router that logs website addresses.

Question 1
I can easily understand how it logs the website addresses that you visit in a web browser, whether on a desktop/laptop or mobile.
In my laptop Firefox, I have gmail in one tab. If I type

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surprise party for mom

in the gmail search box, the URL changes from
URL Number 1: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox to
URL Number 2: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/surprise+party+for+mom.
I assume that the router will see these 2 URLs, including the search words in URL number 2.

But what does it show when you are using an Android app like gmail? In the gmail app, what does the website log show when you search for

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surprise party for mom

?

If you can show screenshots of your website log (feel free to use my examples above), I'd appreciate it very much.

Question 2

Using a laptop browser, how can I hide the URLs I'm visiting from the router? The router is a Linksys router with "Smart Wifi". In the admin's Parental Controls, there is an option for Website Logging. The person can choose between
1. No logging
2. IP addresses
3. Simple/domain logging (e.g. google.com)
4. Full URL logging (e.g., https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+throw+the+best+surprise+party+for+your+parents)

Again, if you can show screenshots of what your website log looks like when you're using whatever your proposed solution is, I'd appreciate it.

[xenopeek]

I doubt anybody is going to share with you their website logs. Wasn't the topic at hand about privacy?

If you don't want your router to log information about what you visit, only "No logging" will achieve that. All other options will effectively log what websites you visited.

The normal way to not be tracked by your router and ISP is to use a VPN. That sets up a secure tunnel between your computer and a remote server, and any websites you visit are visited from that remote server. In between your computer and that remote server nobody can see what websites you visited or what searches you did. You can also use a VPN on your mobile devices.

[frozenthermometer]

I doubt anybody is going to share with you their website logs. Wasn't the topic at hand about privacy?

They don't have to share logs about their private internet activity. I was requesting them to share their logs with my example searches/URLs.

If you don't want your router to log information about what you visit, only "No logging" will achieve that. All other options will effectively log what websites you visited.

It's not my router.

The normal way to not be tracked by your router and ISP is to use a VPN. That sets up a secure tunnel between your computer and a remote server, and any websites you visit are visited from that remote server. In between your computer and that remote server nobody can see what websites you visited or what searches you did. You can also use a VPN on your mobile devices.

I can't afford VPN. do you think Tor-Firefox bundle will be just as good?

[Faust]

@xenopeek has pointed out that a VPN is the simplest way to keep your ISP from invading your privacy .

If you have router provided by your ISP then you have almost zero control of it , and any non-VPN traffic that passes through it .
They will always do what is best for them , and not you !

If money is tight there are still a few decent free VPN services which will serve quite well for light use .
Monthly download allowances will be limited and torrents will probably be blocked , in some cases they may keep logs those will not be visible to your ISP .
I don't usually recommend free VPN services but I have tested the following in Mint 17.3 and I think they are acceptable :-

Proton VPN
Security KISS
SoftEther VPN

[frozenthermometer]

@xenopeek has pointed out that a VPN is the simplest way to keep your ISP from invading your privacy .

If you have router provided by your ISP then you have almost zero control of it , and any non-VPN traffic that passes through it .
They will always do what is best for them , and not you !

If money is tight there are still a few decent free VPN services which will serve quite well for light use .
Monthly download allowances will be limited and torrents will probably be blocked , and even if they keep logs they will not be visible to your ISP .
I don't usually recommend free VPN services but I have tested the following in Mint 17.3 and I think they are acceptable :-
Windscribe
Security KISS
Proton VPN

It's not the ISP I'm concerned about. It's a snooping roommate who has admin access to the router. I'm not worried if ISP company can see every website I visit.

[Faust]

It's not the ISP I'm concerned about. It's a snooping roommate who has admin access to the router. I'm not worried if ISP company can see every website I visit.

Then a VPN will stamp that out ..... the roommate will only see encrypted traffic , even if he has some skills ( eg uses Wireshark )

[ Please note that the text you quoted from my post has been edited slightly regarding free VPN services for Linux users ]