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AI Roundtable Open Poll · 4 models

What is the best DNS over TLS dns for maximum security and privacy combined for Android ?

Answer: Quad9 (dns.quad9.net) is the best DNS-over-TLS provider for Android, combining Swiss privacy with superior malware protection. (All 4 models agreed)

Model Responses

Gemini 3.5 Flash

Answer: Quad9 (dns.quad9.net) is the best DNS over TLS provider for Android, offering an unmatched combination of robust, threat-intelligence-driven security and strict, Swiss-governed privacy protections.

Quad9 stands out as the premier choice because it perfectly balances high-tier security with uncompromising privacy. Operating as a Swiss-based non-profit, Quad9 is bound by some of the world's strictest data privacy laws. It does not log the source IP addresses of its users, ensuring that your browsing history cannot be traced back to you or monetized. On the security front, Quad9 collaborates with dozens of threat intelligence partners to maintain a dynamically updated blocklist of malicious domains. It automatically blocks access to known malware, phishing sites, and spyware at the DNS level before they can reach your Android device. This proactive protection operates seamlessly in the background without requiring any heavy client-side software. Furthermore, integrating Quad9 on Android is incredibly simple using the native Private DNS feature. By entering 'dns.quad9.net' in your system settings, you secure all internet traffic leaving your device with robust TLS encryption, preventing local ISPs or attackers on public Wi-Fi from snooping on your DNS queries.

GPT-5.5

Answer: For Android Private DNS, the best single DNS-over-TLS choice for maximum combined security and privacy is Quad9 using "dns.quad9.net".

Quad9 is a strong default because it combines two things that are often split between providers: security filtering and a comparatively privacy-focused policy. Its standard DoT hostname, "dns.quad9.net", blocks known malicious domains, supports DNSSEC validation, and is run by a nonprofit with a stated policy of not logging users’ source IP addresses for profiling or resale. On Android, you can set it under Private DNS by choosing the provider hostname option and entering "dns.quad9.net". This gives you encrypted DNS transport via DNS-over-TLS, which prevents your local network or ISP from passively reading or modifying your DNS queries. That said, DNS-over-TLS is not total anonymity: Quad9 can still process your DNS queries, and your ISP can still see the IP addresses you connect to unless you also use a trustworthy VPN or Tor. If your priority is privacy above malware blocking, Mullvad DNS is also excellent; but for the best security-and-privacy balance in one Android Private DNS setting, Quad9 is the most practical recommendation.

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Answer: Quad9 is the best DNS-over-TLS provider for maximum combined security and privacy on Android.

Quad9 uniquely combines strong privacy protections with active, high-performance threat intelligence filtering. Unlike many privacy-focused resolvers that use an anonymous logging policy but provide no security filtering, Quad9 blocks connections to known malicious domains—such as those involved in malware distribution, phishing, and botnet command and control—by leveraging threat intelligence from over twenty cybersecurity firms. Crucially, it achieves this while adhering to a strict, audited privacy policy: it does not log, store, or sell any personally identifiable information (PII) or the originating IP address, which is stripped from the query data sent to its upstream threat intelligence partners. Based in Switzerland and operated by a non-profit foundation, Quad9 is subject to strong data protection laws and has no commercial incentive to monetize user data. For Android specifically, the built-in 'Private DNS' feature makes configuration trivially easy with the hostname `dns.quad9.net`, requiring no additional apps that could introduce their own privacy risks. While other strong options like NextDNS offer granular control and Mullvad DNS provides an extreme privacy focus, Quad9 delivers the optimal, zero-configuration balance, providing a critical layer of device-wide protection against cyber threats without compromising on a genuinely concrete privacy guarantee.

Claude Opus 4.7

Answer: For maximum combined security and privacy on Android, Quad9 (dns.quad9.net, 9.9.9.9) is the best DNS-over-TLS provider.

Android 9+ has native DNS-over-TLS support via the 'Private DNS' setting, so the question really comes down to which provider offers the strongest privacy guarantees combined with active threat protection. The main contenders are Quad9, Cloudflare (1dot1dot1dot1.cloudflare-dns.com), NextDNS, Mullvad, and AdGuard. Quad9 wins on the combined metric for several concrete reasons. (1) Jurisdiction: Quad9 is a Swiss non-profit foundation, governed by Switzerland's strict Federal Act on Data Protection — stronger and more privacy-friendly than U.S. or EU jurisdictions where Cloudflare and most others operate. It is explicitly not ad-supported and has no commercial incentive to monetize queries. (2) Privacy policy: Quad9 does not log source IP addresses of queries, has been independently audited, and publishes a transparency report. Cloudflare also claims no IP logging (audited by KPMG), but it is a large U.S. commercial CDN with business incentives around traffic data. (3) Security: Unlike Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, Quad9 actively blocks known malicious domains using a threat-intelligence feed aggregated from ~20 commercial and open-source providers (including IBM X-Force), which materially reduces phishing/malware risk on a mobile device that roams across untrusted Wi-Fi networks. Cloudflare's plain resolver does no filtering; their 1.1.1.2 'malware' variant has a much smaller threat feed. (4) It supports DoT, DoH, and DNSSEC validation, and works out of the box with Android's Private DNS field — just enter 'dns.quad9.net'. Caveats: If you want maximum customization (custom blocklists, per-device analytics, family filtering) NextDNS is arguably better, and if you want zero-knowledge with anonymous payment, Mullvad DNS is excellent — but NextDNS logs by default (opt-out) and Mullvad does no malware filtering. For a balanced 'set it and forget it' choice that maximizes both security (active malicious-domain blocking) and privacy (no-log, non-profit, Swiss jurisdiction, audited), Quad9 is the strongest single answer.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable unanimously recommended Quad9 for its unique position as a Swiss-based non-profit that refuses to monetize user data. Claude Opus 4.7 and Gemini 3.5 Flash noted that while competitors like Cloudflare or Mullvad excel in specific areas, Quad9's massive threat-intelligence feed provides a security layer that others lack. GPT-5.5 and DeepSeek V4 Pro highlighted how the "dns.quad9.net" hostname offers a seamless, zero-configuration security boost via Android’s native settings.

All 4 models agreed