Whilst a VPN is an important and arguably now necessary way to protect yourself on the internet, it's use in practice is very far from a sliver bullet. Ignoring the somewhat inevitable problems of latency and bandwidth - much of the internet appears hostile to VPNs. A significant number or sites either don't work at all, or are a pain to use.

For example

* On NordVPN through US servers you can't access Amazon (!) Although through Canadian servers you are ok.

* Costco, Apple store, Business Insider, YouTube, google, netflex, dell, consumer reports, ebay - either don't work, or are a pain to make work

* On PureVPN you can't send email - until you have your domain whitelisted

* On PureVPN it's a crap shoot if you get a connection

More detail on experiences with PureVPN and NordVPN are here..

https://www.toytheory.com/?p=295

https://www.toytheory.com/?p=273

https://www.toytheory.com/?p=321

(edit: formatting)

> I, too, use encrypted VPN, but we are just a minority.

You're right that VPN usage is technically a minority [1], but it is well beyond fringe usage.

[1] https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/304927/Downloads/VPN-Usage-Ar...

Just wondering, what makes you trust your VPN provider more than your ISP?

I use DigitalOcean as my VPN provider and make my connections to there over IPSEC. I did not set the server up myself alone, but used the Algo VPN [1] script to do it for me. With this setup, I have two things to be concerned about:

1- I did not audit the script myself, and they may have injected various malware to the VPN server it spun up during the setup. I am not concerned enough to not trust them, but I could just read the script thoroughly to eliminate the necessity for trust.

2- DigitalOcean has the access to hardware, so it might be doing whatever while I am not looking, and I just never look. Similarly, I could monitor the activity on the server to assume some control.

I chose DO for being the cheapest ($5/month).

[1] https://github.com/trailofbits/algo

It's more VPN'ing into your own router and trusting your own ISP more than some random free wifi provider.

I am the same as you, but I worry the opposite. Using an encrypted VPN in a sea of unencrypted traffic paints a big target on you that says "Im doing things I don't want you to see". You can bet they are working on / can already decrypt and some three letter agency is targeting specifically VPN traffic.

I don'ẗ think you have to worry, I have never had a job that didn't require encrypted vpn to access the internal networks away from the office.

The only company I know of that puts everything in public so to speak is google.

So VPN traffic is very common.

Good to know , thanks

Hopefully no more than using an envelope instead of a postcard marks you as hiding something.