Firefox Can Hide the Sites You Visit From Your ISP. In Kuwait, It Starts Switched Off
Every lookup leaves the browser in plain text. Three clicks in Settings change that, with one catch for families who filter at home.
Every time you type a web address, your browser first asks a DNS server for the site’s numeric address. On most connections that question leaves your device in plain text, so anyone along the path can read which site you are about to open: the café Wi-Fi, other people on the same network, and your internet provider.
DNS over HTTPS, or DoH, fixes that. It is an IETF standard, RFC 8484, that sends the same lookup inside an encrypted HTTPS connection, the same kind of connection your bank’s website uses. Only the server answering the lookup can read it.
Why it is off in Kuwait
Mozilla switched DoH on by default in Firefox for desktop users in the United States in 2019, in Canada in 2021, and in Russia and Ukraine from March 2022. It says more countries are coming. Kuwait is not on that list yet, so unless you change it, Firefox here still sends lookups the old way.
How to turn it on
- Open the Firefox menu and choose Settings.
- Click Privacy & Security in the left column.
- Scroll to the DNS over HTTPS section and click Advanced settings.
- Pick a protection level.
Default Protection uses secure DNS where it can, falls back to your normal resolver if anything breaks, and switches itself off when a VPN, parental controls or a company policy is active. Custom Protection always uses the provider you choose, with an optional warning when the secure connection fails instead of a silent fallback. Off puts you back where you started.
The trade-off
Some homes, schools and offices rely on that plain-text lookup to block harmful sites or filter what reaches children. Encrypt it and the browser walks past those filters. That is why Firefox backs off when it detects parental controls, and why Custom Protection is a poor choice on a child’s computer.
The lookup does not vanish either. It moves to a different provider, who now sees it instead of your ISP. Mozilla binds its DoH partners to a policy that bars them from collecting personally identifying data.
One gap remains: the site name can show up again when the connection to the site itself starts. A feature called Encrypted Client Hello (ECH), added in Firefox 118, closes that on sites that support it.
Photo: Network cables plugged into a switch at a gaming meet-up in Toronto, illustrative. By Raysonho, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Mozilla Support, “Firefox DNS over HTTPS” and “Configure DNS over HTTPS protection levels in Firefox” (support.mozilla.org, read 24 October 2026); IETF RFC 8484.
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