Are you trying to hide from the NSA, FBI, China, or Disney?

If you’re a pirate, I wouldn’t worry. Likewise if you’re a Chinese dissident or tax cheat. The NSA isn’t going to blow its cover over Frozen 2 or your $3 million bitcoin wallet. Recent news accounts also suggest that the Feds are dismissing child porn cases rather than disclosing methods.

That leaves espionage and terrorism. If you’re involved in those, maybe going cheap on a vpn isn’t best practices to begin with.