It’s the end of the year, so I’m doing my regular overview of all my privacy practices and services. Moving forward, I wonder whether it will be beneficial to use a VPN on my home network and on all my devices, where I haven’t been doing so this year (I only use Proton’s free VPN on public networks)
One thing I want to clear up first, is whether using a VPN is beneficial to prevent tracking and fingerprinting via IP, as well as protecting my real IP from advertisers and the like.
One specific way I can imagine it working, would be separating my traffic and tracking from other members of my household. In the past I have noticed certain personalized results on various sites based on the activity of those I share my internet connection with, despite being on different devices with my own stricter privacy practices. Am I correct in thinking this? Additionally, you would be blending in with others using that same VPN server, yes?
For me it really comes down to whether it will mitigate certain types of tracking, and whether I decide if my IP is something I find necessary to protect or not (which, if anyone has thoughts on, I’d love to hear them).
At the moment, I am leaning on the side of not using a VPN, but I thought I’d seek some external opinions first and clarity on certain points.