Luck of the chance with a VPN
DO NOT use ones that are advertised on TV as these cannot be trusted and they are usually a honeypot.
CyberCriminals USE these to snare you and offshore governments can track you and tie you and others to Illegal activity even if you do not participate
If you’re using a VPN, They’re probably selling your data. All companies exist to make money, A common solution is to store and sell your data, Which defeats the purpose of a VPN for many users.
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/05/31/foreign-spies-may-be-hiding-in-your-vpn-warns-dhs/
VPNs should always be used and any traffic sent over their networks should always be encrypted before entering it. In the US, most ISPs can not be trusted to not monitor connections and scrape info from them. They do so passively and without notifying users what they are doing. That info gets passed on to companies willing to pay for it and whatever governmental agencies interested in obtaining it.
Using a VPN prevents local ISPs from doing that and using always-on encryption prevents the VPN providers from doing the same.
I think a lot of people assume that because a VPN changes their apparent location online, it therefore makes them anonymous and keeps them private from everyone, including the VPN provider itelf.
It’s appealing to assume that cybersecurity is that simple – in the same way that people download the Tor Browser and imagine it’s an all-you-need invisibility blanket.
Ironically, I’ve even heard people who have chosen a VPN provider specifically to help them watch TV illegally (by pretending they’re in another country) arguing that the provider must also, ispo facto, have their personal cybersecurity at heart, and therefore that their identity is sure to be safe. I guess it’s inconvenient to stop and think that someone who’s knowingly helping you to violate copyright rules might just choose to throw you under the bus to save themselves if the cops in their country come knocking…
(NB. I am not suggesting or implying that VPN providers are rogues “just because”. I am merely noting that there seems to be a willingness on the part of many people to assume that no VPN provider could ever sell them out *even if the provider wanted to*. In other words, VPNs seem to have been dusted with some sort of cybersecurity magic, whoever is running them, and where, and for whom. In three words: stop, think, connect.)
https://www.howtogeek.com/342731/dont-use-facebooks-onavo-vpn-its-designed-to-spy-on-you/
https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29