I spend a significant amount of time connected to public WiFi. How do I ensure they can’t see which websites I’m visiting or what files I’m downloading?
You can use a VPN provider that you trust and ensure that your connections to the websites you visit are encrypted (look for a shield or lock icon in the address bar at the top of your web browser). 
I do actually use a VPN already. Reading through the PG posts though made me really second-guess if a VPN was the right choice.
I guess, the next and only other question I have is do you know of a way to verify that nothing is actually leaking outside of the VPN?
If your concerns are about the security or privacy of your online activities over public Wi-Fi, then the most important thing is that you connect to websites over HTTPS (which is generally widely adopted, nowadays).
To clarify my previous answer, if you’re concerned about ISPs viewing your DNS traffic, the VPN page has some useful guidance on whether using a VPN might be appropriate or not. You might also find this resource useful. I recommend making your decision based on the website’s advice, as opposed to any opinions expressed on the forums.
You can use options like firewall rules or an in-built kill switch (e.g. Proton VPN) to ensure that your network traffic uses your VPN connection. This guide explains how you can verify it yourself.
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Fair enough. I saw the doineedavpn site before but not the other guides.
Thanks for the help!
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For further clarification, this specific situation is actually one of the main reasons you would want to use a VPN.
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