There are plenty of legitimate uses for their services, they just aren’t things that the vast majority of people actually need. For example:
access things in a LAN from a WAN - i.e. access a personal PC when you’re at a friend’s house, and your home LAN is behind CGNAT
get around local laws - e.g. my state requires ID checks for porn and social media, so getting a VPN one state over gets around that
prevent ISP from seeing the sites you visit - very valid privacy concern, especially since SNI exists to de-mask TLS packets
There are also some sketchier needs, such as:
get different content on your streaming platform
hide sharing of illegal content (i.e. piracy)
perform illegal transactions (e.g. going on Tor to buy drugs or whatever on the black market)
I think VPNs are trying to appeal to more than just the above needs, they’re trying to create needs to grow their marketshare. That isn’t something a reputable VPN should do, or at least that’s something that would make me hesitate to use a given VPN.
There are plenty of legitimate uses for their services, they just aren’t things that the vast majority of people actually need. For example:
There are also some sketchier needs, such as:
I think VPNs are trying to appeal to more than just the above needs, they’re trying to create needs to grow their marketshare. That isn’t something a reputable VPN should do, or at least that’s something that would make me hesitate to use a given VPN.
If you want to give an anonymous video to the press or the police. If you don’t hide your ip then it isn’t anonymous and they’ll come question you.