The word "VPN" in my country (Nigeria) has become quite popular over the last few weeks owing to the ban of the use of Twitter by my government as well as threats to prosecute citizens who are found to be flouting the ban. A typical response by the people in the face of a disregard for our rights to freedom of expression is to find a way to circumvent the ban. In light of the fact that telecoms companies in the country have been instructed to prevent citizens from having access to Twitter's platform, the use of VPN has become the only alternative.
VPN IS GREAT FOR CHANGING YOUR PERCEIVED LOCATION ON THE INTERNET
Be that as it may, it is important to understand how VPNs work so as to understand the risks involved. Firstly, VPN means Virtual Private Network, the use of VPNs simply means that you have decided to route your internet traffic through a private host (which you don't really know about) rather than using the host made available to you by default through your internet service providers (through the telecoms companies). Telecoms company can only restrict people within specific geographic location access to a site as such VPNs are handy in that they make it look like you're not within the restricted geographical location.
VPNs HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR INTERNET ACTIVITIES
Before you ride off into the sunset with glee you need to understand that by accessing the internet through VPNs you are giving the VPN host access to your activities on the internet, some VPN hosts claim that they only monetize a bit of the data by selling it to advertising companies, however, there are many security experts that express concern over how the data is handled because VPN hosts aren't as accountable to their customers as most organizations have to be. It is advised that VPNs are not used to access data-sensitive digital platforms or used to perform any financial operations because your user details can be stored and used to compromise your accounts.
MY RECOMMENDATION
I personally recommend that VPNs be used only on laptops, you can download VPN extensions on browsers that will work specifically on that browser, you go as far as restricting the VPN extension to one or a couple of websites, that way you don't end up using VPNs on your banking apps and other platforms. In countries where law enforcement agencies have the right to obtain your phones and search through it, the browser VPN extensions are more convenient as you have nothing to worry about when law enforcement asks for your phone.
WEIGH THE RISKS BEFORE PROCEEDING
In summary, consider your internet subscription as a car lease, your telecoms company are the leasing company, they advise that you use roads they have verified to commute because they can provide you security on those routes, the choice is up to you to take other unconventional routes (which is VPN in this case), however, you will be responsible for anything that happens to you on those routes. Regardless of your decision, as long as your lease (internet subscription) hasn't expired, the car (which is basically access to the internet in this case) is yours to use however you like.