As a consumer, a high-quality VPN is good for privacy (assuming your VPN provider isn’t selling your web browsing history) and circumventing content licensing restrictions (ex: watching UK-only content in the US).
It’s not very helpful if you want to avoid getting malicious code on your computer, though. For that, it’s more effective to stop using your admin account, installing an ad blocker (uBlock Orgin) into your web browser, and using a high-quality password manager, either LastPass or 1Password.
If you need a VPN, ExpressVPN is a good choice because:
- It does not sell your browsing history to raise revenue
- A reputable firm (Bishop Fox) has evaluated its security and gave it good marks.
You can read their review here: A Guide to Choosing the Right VPN
But, if you are trying to evade surveillance by a government, then you’ll need to work much harder. For example, let’s say you are a journalist covering the oppression of foreign citizens by their government. You better be following all these procedures published by The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF):