Please send me your bank account details and log in credentials. 
@TheEnglishFlaneur You would only feel sorry for me
There are specific though very narrow privacy concerns with VPNs. Your warning is too vague to be of much use.
VPNs are effective at preventing eavesdropping on Internet traffic which, in turn, eliminates man-in-the-middle attacks on that traffic. The VPN server does know and can log the end-points of Internet transactions but the contents of those transactions are incomprehensible to the VPN server except for texting and emails. Both clear-text texting and emails are the Internet equivalent of the telegraph and snail mail, services that historically were not very secure. So where is there incremental jeopardy?
What are your specific privacy concerns and can they be mitigated?
We use one. And I really must start logging into BBC, now that I am back in Australia and I am missing out on some shows
If I created a free give away and you signed up to it, I could implant a cookie on your browser which would identify you with the name and email you provided even if you had a vpn. And if I had a network of websites or sold your data I could connect them and they would recognise you no matter if you had a vpn.
You have no privacy, Google, Facebook and many other platforms don’t rely on ip and location to identify you. They understand most people will be changing their browsers, their wifi etc. So to Bypass it they install fingerprints and cookies on your browser and watch everything you do.
To get any real privacy, you need to delete your cookies, and log out of all your platforms all the time. That’s just not very convenient.
But yes, you can change your location to watch Netflix 
I’m not much of a techie but years ago I modified my PC’s “hosts” file to block google, facebook, etc with the intention of blocking their trackers. Obviously that means I can’t use those websites, and captchas don’t work sometimes.
Not a techie and first sentence is modifying pc hosts file… Ha ha 95% of the planet have no idea what that means you nerd… Wait… I also know what that means and I also modified hosts… I’m a nerd too… Noooo 
But yeah, there is no privacy online. Even on my websites, I only install free software Microsoft clarity and I can literally watch people scrolling my posts, copy and paste things. It’s creepy, but helps me identify things I need to fix for better experiences. And I have a terms and conditions Pop up so it’s perfectly legal
I don’t sign up for giveaways. And I don’t use VPN to protect my privacy from Facebook and such, trying to sell me stuff. It’s to avoid random or malicious folks who hack into unsecured or poorly secured connections.
In a way it does. Yes
I’ll be interested if/when you have something useful to add.
I would be more concerned about MIcrosoft snooping than “Russian hackers”
I’m cautious, rather than paranoid. I don’t have a social media profile e.g. FB, X and I’m not on Only Fans, at least not knowingly I do log out of sites when I’ve finished whatever I might be doing and my browsers are set to clear all history when I close them. I use third party software for end point protection and I keep my devices up to date. Sure, there’s probably more that I can do, but the extra cost and effort isn’t going to see much benefit.
Its always a pleasure to hear your side of the story. Thank you for your input.
Interesting thread.
We agree with this statement. Long time customer of MacOS app Cookie - auto deletes all cookies, etc from non-whitelisted websites when quit browser. Easy.
For context, we also think that the world would be a better place if social media were somehow uninvented. We maintain a FB account - to divest stuff on Marketplace - under the name of our late dog and with an alias email address 
I recall maybe 10-15 years ago there was a TED talk about how social media, can predict your midlife crisis before it happens and advertise specifically to hit those points, increase revenue.
I think VPN for privacy is silly, but for making it harder for bad actors to access your machine through a dodgy connection is the major benefit, also Netflix from other countries. Just so people know Netflix has cookies and fingerprinting on your browser, so they know you don’t instantly just appear in another country.
But I have a slight belief that the VPN was pushed so hard because the companies were spending large amounts of money to collect information about you around the web, but telling people the internet was dangerous without a VPN meant that people willingly would sign up to a platform, create a profile with their name and bank account and funnel all their website browsing, through this one account. Best of all, why not connect all your home devices and family on the same account haha.
I know I know, it says in the company terms and conditions that that is not what they do. And I should always trust companies, because I have never had a big corporation steal my information, disadvantage me or use my browsing data against me. I have also never been censored on any platform 
Either way, was fun chatting, but I think I should probably stop. Danke schon 
Indeed. Many popular VPN brands are owned by the same parent company. Privacy policies, jurisdictions and server network vary significantly across VPN brands.
For any curious, we’ve used ProtonVPN for many years. Happy customers. Also blocks trackers & adverts (boo to them). Swiss company (About).
Suspect few things in life are fully risk-free (and what’d be the fun in that ) but we perceive that ProtonVPN mitigates significant privacy risk; enhances our internet experience (no ads); and enables credibly fast connection from many countries. We’re not tech professionals but tech literate.
You might be amazed at how much information can be gleaned from your website. 
I stopped caring because if you are using a device, you are sharing more than you expect. I used to run my internet via 2 vpn’s, clearing cookies after each browsing session and in the end it amounted to… pretty much nothing.
That is why I mentioned that VPN’s are not doing much for privacy, basically 0 these days.
Hmm, not caring isn’t something I’d ever advocate for, especially with personal data. As I said I’m not trying to eliminate all risk, but I am trying to reduce it and using a VPN on a sit is a part of that strategy.
Apps like Vinted now won’t work if your VPN is switched on, it’s irritating to now have to pause it before using an increasing number of Apps. Just yesterday I discovered I can’t use BLUOS at home to control my music sound system unless I pause my VPN.
Our son who works in Ai (engineer) advised us to now only use
Duckduckgo for browsing
Duck.ai for Ai solutions