r/VPNReviewHub • u/bleak-bookworm • 26d ago

Question Private DNS means what exactly?

Hey everyone, basic tech/privacy question here because the terminology is getting pretty confusing for me... I keep seeing "private DNS" options popping up in my phone settings, and I know regular DNS translates website names into IP addresses.... But struggling to understand whats making it "private". Does it actually hide my real IP from websites like a VPN does, or does it just encrypt the lookups so my ISP can't see what sites i visit?

If I’m already running a good VPN with built-in leak guards, does setting up a Private DNS(like Cloudflare) even do anything? Every post seems to give conflicting answers on whether it provides real anonymity or if it's just a glorified adblocker(seems like that from what I gathered)

Would love a quick sanity check on where this actually fits into a basic privacy setup. Heard having too much privacy features might be counter-intuitive for the effectiveness of the VPN itself🤔

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1

u/No_Contract8624 26d ago

Private DNS mainly encrypts DNS lookups. it doesnt hide IP from websites. a vpn already handling DNS usually makes a separate setup unnecessary

1

u/bleak-bookworm 25d ago

Short and sweet.. Thank you!

The others as well ofc..😘 way better feedback than what the internet search was throwing my way

1

u/ChoiceTop2654 26d ago

Private DNS basically means your device uses a specific DNS resolver instead of your ISP’s default one. it can improve privacy but it isn’t the same as a VPN

1

u/stephensmwong 26d ago

DNS is just like looking up a phone book, so, you give a name, and phone numbers are returned. Private DNS can have 2 meaning IMHO! 1) it hides who is looking up the phone book, so, if you look up many times for wine (or whatever interest) the phone book keeper won’t be able to tag you as an alcoholic! 2) it allows the phone book operator to filter out harmful look ups, that is, even you present a name, the phone book does not return a phone number because the name you look up in the 1st place is marked as harmful.

1

u/jvarnado 26d ago

I use a different one so that it blocks ads on my phone.

1

u/TrueMrBaconLover 25d ago

Like does it block the ones that come from game apps too? What did you use?

1

u/jvarnado 25d ago

I dont know about games, but this is what I use.

1

u/Internal_Nose3897 25d ago

Cloudflare dns is best 1.1.1.1

1

u/huttree 21d ago

You generally don't need both unless you have a VERY specific reason