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I swear VPN privacy is a red herring.

Everyone I know who has a VPN subscription simply uses it to prevent DMCA letters from their ISP when torrenting.

VPN providers with a "no logs" policy simply shrug these off.

I know people that use VPNs 24/7 just for privacy. I would assume there's many more that use them for the reason you described though. Torrents are less useful than ever, piracy is down in general thanks to streaming services and products having moved to SaaS. From what I can tell, the number of people using VPNs merely for privacy alone is growing and a good sign that people feel that strongly about it.

> torrents are less useful than ever

ok I'll bite, let's hear it

Media piracy is less tempting than in 2006 (before streaming) but more tempting than in 2014 (before competition decreased overall and everyone started siloing content as part of their truce).

Server-side control has been making software piracy less and less viable, video games sorta included. And a lot of mainstream games have found ways to make money without charging to buy the game upfront.

Media privacy might be less tempting, but it's been swinging in the other direction (of becoming valid again) for quite a few years.

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