Ultimately being truly anonymous on the internet is pretty hard, and thus VPNs are mostly helpful for getting around region blocks for streaming services, not for obtaining more privacy.

I disagree.

There seems to constantly be two sides of the privacy discussion with public VPN options and they're both wrong on their own. It's correct that using a VPN on its own is not enough to keep you private online, fingerprinting being one example to why. However, not using a VPN but having no identifiable browser fingerprint doesn't either, since your IP is still a fingerprint too.

I like to give the following analogies:

1. Doing only an oil change on your vehicle but no other maintenance won't keep your vehicle running forever
2. Doing all vehicle maintenances except oil changes won't keep your vehicle running forever

If the goal is to be private, remember that a VPN is only one tool in a very large tool belt.

no shit

I use VPN because of the ISP and the network, not to become anonymous to the websites I visit.

Back in the day there were apps that generated phony web searches to obfuscate your real searches. Seems like there could be tools to mess around and change browser fingerprints periodically. No?

Doesn't browser with anti-fingerpriting give the same settings to everyone using that browser so they all look like the same person?

Here are some extra tips for increased privacy:

• Don´t use your browser in fullscreen
• Download Chameleon for Firefox, it periodically changes the browser and OS it pretends to be

OR: Use Chameleon and set yourself to the most common combo. Get lost in the noise.

But VPNs aren't supposed to make you anonymous.
They secure your data while in transit to/from the exit node. Maybe that's your job so you can access their LAN. Or it's a public VPN that secures your dada from the local WiFi or ISP you're directly connected to. That's all it's built for.

don’t browse the web and actually get some work done

WEB IS HARMFUL!!!

This is a bit of a misnomer. No one PC can be fully anonymized or fully private, even if the PC provided fake data points, they will still be technically fingerprinted. Having said that, having a browser that tries to spoof stuff like LibreWolf, Tor or IronFox is decent.

The gains in using a VPN, among other best practices is that helps --assuming people do not log on to something like Google-- is to minimize the fingerprint of the PC to you, as a user. Assuming one trust their VPN provider, helps.

Tor leverages the point of having all users look and be fingerprinted mostly as the same, so you get lost in the shuffle and crowd.

I just tried the Am I Unique site and I'm surprised by the amount of information the sites can have. Why do they know if I'm connected using 4G or 5G for example? Even using a privacy browser

Fingerprinting isn't allways synonym of the lack of privacy. But there are differences between fingerprinting for tracking and profiling reasons, which certainly is needed to block or to spoof, and tecnically data needed to show correctly the content of a page, eg the first public IP numbers to show the content in your lenguage, the fonts used, screen resolution, OS, browser engine...., all data which are the same for millon other users. We can block por complete the fingerprinting, but than we'll see that half of the pages are not shown correctly or don't even work. It's always an commitment to set the fingerprint blocking. VPNs add an privacy layer, but dont avoid fingerprintings, used as extension can't avoid that the browser connect first to the ISP before the VPN can create the tunnel, with which it may serve to skip country restrictions, but you are still seen by your ISP. It don't also blocking the fingerprinting, except the IP. To stay private depends more on other measures, DNScrypt, not to use apps, search engines and services which logs/share our activity, using ad/trackerblocker.... and the most important, common sense, not a tin foil hat. PEBCAK