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 don’t really protect your privacy though, except in cases where you’ve already eliminated other means of tracking (e.g. fresh incognito browser tab + VPN). Every website and service I use still has a record of my activity if I’m logged in, advertiser networks have other means of tracking you, etc.
The issue is buying a VPN and thinking that’s the end of it.
It protects your ip address, and your ISP from knowing what you’re doing. It also protects you on public wifi from nefarious actors. VPN’s aren’t meant to protect you from Google advertising while checking your Gmail account…
It just routes everything to a 3rd party, your choice who you trust
Incognito does basically nothing other then not feeling a history.
A VPN hides your activity from anyone that has access to the network, especially the router or DNS server, and more importantly from your ISP.