Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, are popular services for (supposedly) increasing your security and privacy on the internet. They are often marketed as all-encompassing security tools, and something that you absolutely need to keep hackers at bay. However, many of the selling points for VPNs are exaggerated or just outright
VPNs are not the security panacea that marketers would have you think they are. Using a VPN does provide some obfuscation as to your origin, but it does change your trust model. The VPN service provider may tunnel your traffic through your ISP to hide data from the ISP, but now it’s visible to the VPN service provider instead.
There are plenty of use cases for a VPN, but just like any other technology or service, you need to know what it actually does so you know what it actually achieves or doesn’t achieve.