Technology

The only thing you're "protecting" yourself from by using a vpn to surf the Internet, is your own provider. It won't stop any spying software on your phone, or any nefarious scripts on the websites you visit.

Tom's argument was more nuanced than that, which is why I linked it. I suggest you watch it and explain where he's wrong if you want to give your argument to ignore him any weight. Ad hominems and "imagined" arguments alone won't get you very far, I'm afraid.

When I'm away from home, I use my own Wireguard VPN back into my private network, where all of my traffic is filtered.

That’s your own VPN, not a commercial VPN service and you’re using that for what I would assume is DNS filtering. Thats entirely unrelated to what a commercial VPN service does and what Tom Scott’s video is about. And that’s not even a benefit of your VPN, your VPN is just a tool you’re using for remote access to your DNS filter/server which is what’s actually providing you that service. I could do the same exact thing with a recursive DNS server and Pihole using DOH without a VPN at all.

I use a VPN for my job as well, and it isn't to protect company products (we don't make a product). It's to keep prying eyes out.

That is again an entirely different use case and product than what a commercial VPN service is offering. That’s not even for privacy, it’s for secure remote access to your company network.

I'm sorry, but when my wife and kid's phones are showing them ads for things we talked about 5 minutes ago, they appear horrified by it. Then they move along like nothing happened. That's the typical user.

That’s not a problem a VPN service solves.

I will continue to not be spied on 24/7 by corporations and my government.

With a VPN service like ProtonVPN, all you’re doing is changing the corporation that can see which sites you visit from your ISP, to Proton. It isn’t inherently any more private or secure, you’re just choosing which corporation you allow the ability to spy on you.

I don't remember if I saw that video from Tom Scott or not, but I imagine his argument was along the lines of, "if you aren't doing anything nefarious or you don't live in a nation state that censors you, then you have nothing to worry about".

No, his argument was that outside of spoofing your location, and hiding which sites you visit from your ISP specifically, VPN services don’t provide the average consumer with any additional benefit over what you get for free by default due to the wonderful inventions of TLS, and HSTS. The point is that VPN service companies use scare tactics to get you to purchase a product you don’t need to solve problems you don’t have. NetworkChuck made a whole sponsored video about how somebody can man-in-the-middle you at a coffee shop to steal your credit card information to demonstrate the effectiveness of a VPN service and the attack he demonstrated was literally impossible. He created a fake, non-real world scenario straight out of 2003 to deceive the less tech literate public in order to shill a VPN service.

Tom Scott provided a fantastic public service by educating people on what a VPN actually DOES and what it DOESN'T DO. So people can actually make a decision as to whether they need one due to the facts, not misinformation and false advertisement. You on the other hand still can’t seem to articulate what exactly you think a VPN services does for you and how it does it. You have a lot of buzzwords and vague statements about “being spied on”, and never actually said why you think commercial VPN products should be used by the average user “On todays web”.