When Using a VPN while on a HTTP website, what can be seen, and what cannot be seen, and by whom?

VPN
1

I’ve seen some complicated answers to this question and I was wondering if someone could elaborate clearly.

2

When you use a VPN to connect to the public internet, there are only two things that happen:

  1. your internet connection to the VPN is encrypted, giving you some additional security when using public internet access.
  2. Your IP address changes.

From the perspective of what happens AFTER the VPN provider, absolutely nothing other than the different IP address. The website you are connecting to has no additional security OR anonymity provided by the VPN.

3

So ISPS can only see that you are connected to a VPN and how much data you’re using. Not that you’re viewing a HTTP website, but anything typed on said HTTP website is open game because it isn’t encrypted with HTTPS? That is my understanding.

4

ISP can also see DNS if you’re using the ISP’s DNS

5

And this also means that websites can only see what you do on their website and that you are connected via a VPN?

6

Extremely informative and easy to understand, thanks so much. I suppose this is why some people uninstall then reinstall browsers after swapping VPN locations to avoid those issues, though I don’t think I would personally need that level of protection.

7

That’s cool, Firefox is actually quite good with their add-ons, even on Android.

8

why not just use multiple user profiles instead of browsers?