What does your ISP see or know about you?

I'm a computer user since the 1980s and still have no idea about them. I don't do anything illegal, but do surf legal porn, my family wouldn't be impressed if they found out, and this makes me wonder what my ISP sees or knows about me. I know that my PC talks to the router and the router connects me via my ISP to web sites.
I assume in my completely amateurish way that my ISP server is in the middle of my surfing, like a bridge, so it's 'computer - router - ISP - websites.' Although it's all above board (to a certain extent lol) I still don't like my ISP watching everything I do and maybe someday the staff will call up my records and have a good laugh over where I've been. I was told many years ago to treat the Internet as a masked ball where the mask can come off at any time.
I don't understand VPNs - is it 'computer - router - ISP - VPN - site' - the ISP must still have your surfing history (and they keep it no matter what they say) or is it 'computer - router - VPN - ISP' so the ISP sees nothing?
I know my computer has its' own 'name' that sites can see, so no matter what is in between it's still my computer talking to the end website, but I just don't like my ISP being able to access where I've been and what I've been looking at. Legal but potentially embarrassing...
What's the 'expert' view?

 

Somewhere enshrined in some little file is a record of anything I have ever done since 1995. Same with all my texts and phone calls. You can never go wrong with that assumption. In case I do get hit by a bus and they need to look through my history without embarrassing or intriguing my survivors, I will use incognito mode when doing anything that is colorful.... I think anyone that really looks will find out I live a very dull life....

 

How does this work in the UK, where unless we are directly running a server, we have dynamic IP.
Even BT seem confused about this one, but on a few occasions when I have found access to sites ending .gov.uk (both Jane and our daughters work email), rebooting the router has resolved the problem.

 

Well dont they have a right to it Skip as we are using thier network? (They wanna make sure thier network is being used for spam or whatnot)

 

This is interesting to me if only for selfish reasons. I recently reached out to a public official asking for intervention on behalf of the populace. I want to see regulatory measures implemented at the service provider level to allow each and every person in this country to make a decision about content regulation.

What I mean is AT&T and Verizon (and whoever else is offering internet) must filter out adult content. We have movie ratings, we have explicit content warnings on music, why are we guarding so closely our right to freedom of expression on the internet?

But that raises the question, "What has you motivated to affect so much change?". I blame the LSD... LOL. No, it isn't that...

The reason is because too many times I have been the target of 'intervention'... Because so many times I had innocently looked at some content only to go out into the world and experience the feeling of being targeted, shamed, or blamed, etc.

I think those people (the interventionists) deserve a voice that says something honest and solid. When they have made that decision for their household, and have opted out of mature content, they can look each of their friends in the eyes and say confidently, "I made this decision so that I can look my family and my coworkers in the eyes again without feeling like an episode of late-night television has taken center stage, and my nervous laughter is now reserved for more intellectual things".

They will know that they did this because they have been deprived of feeling honest, and they'll congratulate themselves and go forward leading our global society in a way that is meaningful, instead of being the digital colonialist who led in the wrong direction.

And the world will awaken to true love and be grateful...

 

The tracking one is so true. Christina (our daughter) is a met police officer and while working in anti terrorism, they were tracking suspects every movement. Their finances were handing out on a plate.

I woke up one morning to discover that I had sent 5000 emails. To avoid static IP and running our server 24/7, I was using Microsoft 365 via BT, A big mistake, since business accounts are the ones targeted by hackers.
On that day, I had popped over to Russia to send my emails, along with about 1,000 other BT customers. It took them weeks to sort it all out and needless to say according to them, it never happened. LOL

I did not know that my dynamic IP was held on a register, but it makes sense.

Thanks, Wills.

PS, I suspect that a few ex HF members are about to find all this out the hard way.

 

Thanks guys, just as I suspected. I have tried a few things to get access to stuff ("this content is unavailable in your country", it's usually music videos) and people I've chatted to have recommended various solutions, everything from VPNs to browsers that allegedly cover your activities, but I suspect that behind it all there's my computer name shining away for all to see.

 

All cannot see your computer. There are firewalls in the way. You are tracked via your mobile phone easy enough, but with dynamic ips that change each time you login, no casual user is going to see you or what you are doing. NOBODY CARES!

The kind of info you think ppl can see can usually only be revealed after the legal serving of a warrant to the right party, usually the ISP. Until that is produced, your ISP doesn't care about you. It takes a complaint. And then it's up to the ISP or other entity to comply or not. And they don't always comply.