Ownership is a big problem with VPNs. A bunch of them are owned by the same two or three companies, and those companies are not good.
I really have no idea what to trust nowadays. A few years ago, Mullvad and Proton were the industry darlings, but they BOTH have far-right ties. Mullvad's founder donates to far-right organizations, and Proton's CEO has AI psychosis and doubled down on some ridiculous comments praising Trump.
It really boggles the mind how anyone can purportedly value privacy and also support any far-right politics. Makes me think they're all honeypots.