This isn’t a major problem but it is kind of embarrassing and I would like to keep my internet activity private.
I’m 100% sure he can see my activity. I suspected he could based off some comments he was making so I tested it by googling a bunch of self-harm stuff for a couple of days and then he tried to talk to me about it without any other discernable reason (I don’t actually self-harm and the specific topics he mentions was stuff he could have only know if he was watching my activity).
As far as I can tell Tor should hide my activity from my internet provider? I don’t understand why Tor doesn’t work. I’m concerned that if Tor doesn’t work a VPN won’t work either.
I believe we have a netgear router if that helps.
A VPN can hide where you connect from your device since you always connect to the VPN’s server with an encrypted connection. Since it seems the “he” is someone you know, it seems that the person has access to your device or at least browser. Why? TOR uses https, there is no way someone like your ISP could see what you search even then, since every search (unless you use http sites very unlikely) is https only see where you connect.
Thats why this “he” must have some programm installed on your device/s or maybe has some access to your browser history, but that is just speculation without more information on this matter.
Establish dominance and look up some step-brother related themed videos.
Jokes out of the way…
Here’s how he can be doing this:
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He could simply have your credentials to login. Whether this is done via keylogger or manually by snooping the result is the same. However, the solution would require either a free reinstall and not just changing your password. You would want to wipe the drive completely (format + reinstall your o.s) in case they’re technically knowledgeable enough to utilise another partition on the disk to hide the malware.
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He has signed in to your Chrome sessions and is watching your activity that way. Have you used another device to browse? Disable activity sync to avoid that. A lot of social apps and browsers have the ability to wipe sessions.
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By using Child safety & activity recording apps. Your sessions could be recorded or viewed remotely. As another user has suggested, look at task manager and start researching what processes are running at any given time.
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Via the router. Similar to above he may have installed or allowed the tracking of internet traffic via snooping apps. Netgear, being a popular router, has many options for the above. While using Windscribe/Tor would prevent that - we can’t help it if they can simply look at your history.
If the device can be physically accessed by your brother without your knowledge (which it sounds like as you’re sharing a room) it is vulnerable to being tampered with.
Whatever his intentions are you are going to have to tidy up then bite the bullet then confront him via your parents.
It sucks, but honestly I would provide this thread while doing so. Consider how best to frame your grievances, make sure you highlight that you deserve privacy, and that you came to your parents because you’re concerned about the fallout if you approached him directly.
As the snooping shows controlling behaviour and you don’t want to be coerced by if you were to speak to him privately.
Probably simpler to confront the roommate because it seems to be an invasion of privacy. “Hiding” may force him to escalate the situation if he’s that nosy.
Netgear router may have logging, so a vpn might help hide that info. You can at least try the vpn and see if it helps!
Wipe your computer (factory reset), use strong password, use vpn and regularly clear browsing history.
Tor and vpn on top of all that and you should be good!
Your question has many possible answers, and it might not even have anything to do with using a VPN. The “he” you are referring to might be able to see your internet activity by hacking your device using a trojan, botnet, or something like that. With that being said, if your device has been exploited by someone, turning on your VPN may not be effective in preventing them from accessing your information. First you need to make sure that your device has not been infected by a virus and then you can start using VPN to improve your privacy protection.
I’m not sure I’m techy enough to answer definitively, so I’m ready to be called wrong. However…
An antivirus program should find any keylogger program. Run a scan asap.
I would go to portableapps.com, and download the main program onto a new flashdrive. Once installed, download portable versions of chrome or Firefox onto the flashdrive.
Using portable versions should mean there is no browsing history saved on the main machine, when you unplug the flash drive,there should be no records or traces left to be found. I think it much more likely he reads your browsing history that is saved on the PC , A portable browser will avoid this ( and Opera has a free VPN I seem to recall - an extra layer of security…)
This is a privacy breach and you should confront him. What excuse could he have for doing this? Better to to an adult about this.
Realised I forgot to mention “he” is my roommate
Make a clean fresh new windows installation in the device, formating all, then install a VPN, if you use HTTPS to surf the web he cannot see what youre doing, but its needed you use browsers like LibreWolf that is security and privacy oriented, also remember to no give him access with admin permission to the device, windows defender is enough as AV, but if you want better security use Avira or Panda cloud i.e, also enable DoH in the web browser, and Win11 has an option to enabled it too
Thanks for the advice. Is there a way to know if there’s a keylogger or botnet or something on my computer? We have used each others devices before so I think its plausible
Thanks for the advice, do you know a good way to check for those?
Well, I will assume that you use Windows. But there are some options,
…either you back up all your personal files and such and factory reset your computer this way there is no way there should something would stay, if its some program. But also make sure that he doesn’t know the password so he can’t mess around again.
…then there is the less save way, but it would be easier but you need to be more tech-savvy, you could look in task manager if there are any suspicious processes running under the “processes” tab and if there are any that are under “autostart” that start up when the system turns on. Also on the control panel under “Programs” and then “Programs and Features” you could look if there is some weird programm installed and uninstall it.
…since you think he can see what you search, maybe you could check your browser for addons and also what would be the easiest to see your history, would be if he has an account linked with your browser, they often have allow you to sync across devices and such so thats a possibility too.
All depends how techsavvy he is and what he did exactly, but these are some ideas.
If you have more questions I an willing to help some more.
I feel stupid. My “roommate” is my older brother who absolutely has access to my devices. We’re even sharing a Microsoft account (as separate users but still). He is very nosy. He used to watch everyone’s internet activity when we were kids but I just assumed he could do that because everyone used chrome or edge lol. And I hoped he would stop now that I’m an adult…
He is very tech savvy but I assume he couldn’t know how to hack Tor?
I also am using windows.
Thank you so much! I’ll probably try all of those in combination just to be safe. I have some minor experience with task manager but I don’t trust my ability to identify suspicious processes on there.
Oh also I forgot, after you “cleaned” everything change your passwords, just in case. Since maybe he also had access to those in some form.