Simple Privacy Fix #5
Hide Your Traffic, Not Just Your Address
The Issue
Every time you go online, two things are watching. Your internet provider sees every site you visit, even on encrypted connections. And every site you visit sees your IP address — a return address that reveals roughly where you are and can be used to link your visits together over time.
The Privacy Risk
Internet providers can log, sell, or hand over your browsing activity. Websites and ad networks use your IP address as one more tracking signal, stitched together with cookies and other methods to build a profile of you across the web. On public Wi-Fi — cafés, airports, hotels — anyone else on the network can potentially see your traffic too.
The Simple Fix
This is the tool we personally use and recommend. It meets our listing criteria: no advertising business model, no data selling, personally tested by us.
Audited No-Logs VPN
This is the tool we personally use — on mobile, desktop, and our home router, for several years running. Proton VPN routes your traffic through an encrypted tunnel, hiding it from your internet provider and replacing your IP address with one shared by thousands of others. It is independently audited every year since 2022, plus a SOC 2 Type II audit, and built on Swiss privacy law. NetShield, its built-in ad, tracker, and malware blocker, works at the network level, catching some in-app ads and trackers that browser extensions can’t reach. Unlike many privacy-first VPNs, it also reliably unblocks major streaming services. Apps cover Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, plus router-level setup for whole-home coverage, and the free tier is genuinely usable — unlimited data, no ads, no logs.
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What a VPN Doesn’t Do
A VPN hides your IP address and encrypts your traffic — that’s it. It doesn’t make you anonymous. Websites can still recognize you through cookies, browser fingerprinting, and simply being logged into an account. Treat a VPN as one layer of protection, not a cloak of invisibility — pair it with the browsing fix for the fuller picture.
Why Just One VPN
Proton is the only VPN we’ve personally tested end to end, so it’s the only one we can vouch for firsthand — that’s the whole reason it’s our pick, not a claim that it’s the only good option out there. A healthy, competitive market of privacy-respecting VPNs is good for everyone, and providers like Mullvad and IVPN are both excellent, independently audited alternatives worth exploring, especially if streaming isn’t your priority.
Learn More
Further reading and viewing on VPNs, from organizations and creators we trust.
- Techlore — VPN Finder — an independently maintained, side-by-side comparison of 39 VPN providers on privacy practices, jurisdiction, and audits
- Techlore — VPN Tier List 2026 — a video ranking of major VPN providers, including a closer look at Mullvad and IVPN as alternatives to Proton
From the Blog
Further reading from the Pretty Simple Privacy blog.
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