As a general rule, if you’re getting a service for free, you’re the product.

I don’t know much about the downsides of free in the context of VPNs, as I didn’t really get in to the technical ins and outs. But when we’re talking security and privacy I think the cost of supporting something good and sustainable is well worth it.

I’ve heard port forwarding is helpful for speed, and that might be a paid only thing, but to be honest I’m consistently surprised by how fast things go for me just using mullvad.

Another thing you may wish to consider: the Proton CEO has praised Trump which is a huge red flag to me in the privacy space.

These resources are really all you need, but they’re all individually quite focused so for a new person it can be hard to see the forest.

An overview:

For movies, streaming sites are fine.

To start torrenting safely:

• get a paid vpn (i use mullvad)
• download qbittorrent or the like
• find a public tracker from the megathead, general ones are easy/convenient for starting imo
• virus scan/use common sense/be careful

It’s what I use and it works well for me. It seemed like the best option when I was researching this recently. Plus the icon is cute.