IMO, you’re probably fine with only using VPN. That is with all the settings and additional measures done and with credible VPN provider, which, in my case, Mullvad.
If you’re planning another 9.11 or for some sick reason decided to share no no porns, VPN is definitely not enough and I’m pretty sure you already know that.
A lot of reputable VPN providers are constantly poked bt the authorities. They give nothing because they have nothing.
You’re fine if you’re just trying to bypass stupid regional censorship or download bunch of movies. That is, again, with proper security measures of course.
I’ve seen some people saying that you should use Tor for anonymity when someone’s just asking about how to use VPN better or whatnot. Tor is better in terms of anonymity, sure. But for most of the cases, VPN is fine.
And I cannot stress this enough: you will NEVER be perfectly anonymous online. Period.
I always thought that VPN (or any other means of hiding your IP) is a necessary but not sufficient step to prevent online tracking. Is this not correct? I don’t think that using GChrome with a VPN will do much, in the same way as using hardened browsers without VPN will do much. It might depend on the thread model.