VPNs, or virtual private networks, continue to be used by millions of people as a way of masking their internet activity by encrypting their location and web traffic.

But on the modern internet, most people can safely ditch them, thanks to the widespread use of encryption that has made public internet connections far less of a security threat, cybersecurity experts say.

The author seems to be generalizing from the specific (you don't need a VPN to not have your data stolen by some asshole on the coffee shop WiFi) to a much wider issue (you don't need a VPN for privacy).

What should make us even more skeptical of this article is that NBC's parent company Comcast stands to lose from widespread adoption of VPNs, because even with HTTPS connections they can still harvest data about what sites people visit and sell that data unless people opt out.

“Most commercial VPNs are snake oil from a security standpoint,” said Nicholas Weaver, a cybersecurity lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. “They don’t improve your security at all.”

Yeah, there are a lot of shitty VPNs. The takeaway shouldn't be don't use VPNs but instead do your research as it should be with any major purchase.

VPNs, or virtual private networks, continue to be used by millions of people as a way of masking their internet activity by encrypting their location and web traffic.

But on the modern internet, most people can safely ditch them, thanks to the widespread use of encryption that has made public internet connections far less of a security threat, cybersecurity experts say.

The author seems to be generalizing from the specific (you don't need a VPN to not have your data stolen by some asshole on the coffee shop WiFi) to a much wider issue (you don't need a VPN for privacy).

What should make us even more skeptical of this article is that NBC's parent company Comcast stands to lose from widespread adoption of VPNs, because even with HTTPS connections they can still harvest data about what sites people visit and sell that data unless people opt out.

“Most commercial VPNs are snake oil from a security standpoint,” said Nicholas Weaver, a cybersecurity lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. “They don’t improve your security at all.”

Yeah, there are a lot of shitty VPNs. The takeaway shouldn't be don't use them but instead do your research as it should be with any major purchase.