Every web request has three points that can watch it: your local network, the proxy in the middle, and the destination site. A web proxy changes what each one sees. Below is the honest, per-hop map.
Without a proxy
| Who can see | Your IP | The URL you asked for | The page contents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your local network / ISP | Yes | Yes (the domain, at least) | Only if not HTTPS |
| The destination site | Yes | Yes | Yes — it served it |
Even with HTTPS, your ISP sees which domain you connected to (through DNS and TLS SNI), just not the page inside the connection.
With a web proxy
| Who can see | Your IP | The URL you asked for | The page contents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your local network / ISP | Yes — but only that you’re talking to the proxy | Only that the proxy’s domain was called | No |
| The proxy | Yes — because you connected to it | Yes — that’s how it fetches for you | Yes — it forwards the page to you |
| The destination site | No — sees the proxy’s IP | Yes — it’s still serving that page | Yes |
What the proxy can see
A web proxy is not magic. Because it fetches on your behalf, it sees:
- Your IP address (that is how it sends the page back).
- Every URL you ask it to fetch.
- The page contents on the way through.
Whether it stores any of that is a policy choice by the proxy operator. AnyProxy does not log the URLs you visit, and keeps only aggregate metrics of request count and latency by region. Different proxies make different choices — ask the one you use.
What signing in changes
If you sign in to Google, YouTube, X, Instagram or anywhere else while on a proxy, that site now knows it is you. The proxy hid your IP from them, but you handed them your identity in the sign-in form.
If you use the proxy only for anonymous reading — not signed into anything — the destination site sees a request from the proxy’s IP with no persistent identifier.
What a proxy does not hide
- The pages you visit from the proxy operator. They have to know, that is how the proxy works.
- Your account activity on sites you sign in to. The site sees you the moment you log in.
- Browser fingerprint. Your user agent, screen size, installed fonts, and timezone are visible to the destination. Proxies do not change these.
- Cookies that already existed. If you have a Facebook cookie in your browser, Facebook will still recognise you when you open it through a proxy.
When you want stronger privacy
A web proxy is the right tool for opening a blocked page. It is not the right tool for hiding your identity from a site you sign in to, or from your ISP across every app.
For device-wide privacy, use a VPN — see our proxy vs VPN piece. For anonymity from the destination site itself, use a browser (like Tor) that fights fingerprinting alongside routing.
The short answer
A proxy hides the destination from your local network, and hides you from the destination — until you sign in. It does not hide anything from the proxy itself. Pick a proxy whose logging policy you trust.