Commercial VPN services are often used by those wishing to disguise or obfuscate their physical location or IP address, typically as a means to evade Internet censorship or geo-blocking.
The only secure VPN is where the participants have oversight at both ends of the entire data path or when the content is encrypted before it enters the tunnel.
This includes virtual network adapters on computer OSes and specialized "VPN" interfaces on mobile operating systems.
[5] Users are commonly exposed to misinformation on the VPN services market, which makes it difficult for them to discern fact from false claims in advertisements.
[23] PC Magazine recommends that users consider choosing a provider based in a country with no data retention laws because that makes it easier for the service to keep a promise of no logging.