Proxy and VPN isn’t the same, they each have its own color
Many people normally get these two concepts in the wrong way.
It is actually your Privacy vs your Anonymity.
Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) knows where you were browsing, and have records of all of you, entire of you, the whole of you. Every single webpage you visit and the addresses of your history, they know you much more than anyone else, even top secrets. (This only happens when they pick you in the database and read all that, so).
Collected ISP database tells about you everything, what type of person you are, your favorite food, how nasty your perverty is, who you stalking on Facebook, your political views, and it is possible that ISP employees would laugh out loud on the addresses you have been typing in a “private tab” aka incognito mode. (these are just shielded for your own family under the same roof, only useful if they compromised your desktop or laptop and checking on where you visited with browser).
ISP sells your information to Amazon, Google, and what else? You name it.
Let’s say you want to visit some sites that shameful to share or somewhere you visit that is illegal or dangerous, anything.
In the example, a VPN can protect your privacy completely. From the end to the end (we call that “tunnel through”) so it doesn’t let them have the record on what you did inside of the tunnel. You will get caught from the surveillance cameras outside the entrances and exit of the tunnels, and those cameras should be the ISP (your Internet Service Provider).
Anyway, if you are on VPN, let’s say ISP reported you for anything, you then (for any reason) have to go to the court, the prosecutor can’t charge you for the criminal case right away, because they don’t have enough proof, only the camera footages of the entrance you walk-in to the crime scene, and the end tunnel. No one saw you in the tunnel. So what would you if you were the judge? That’s the percentage judge might put you in jail or not.
Proxy, have several options of connection, I call the best one Socks5, and we will compare it with a VPN. While VPN has all possibilities to build multiple professional networks possible, Socks5 can make your identity’s Anonymity much more than VPN, it will do all the magic you can imagine from the movies, it has options to achieve your full anonymity. If VPN surprises you how it tunneled through a mountain to protect you, Proxy will show you a tunnel that made through the underground, And if a Proxy do more custom setup, they can hide like Wrath in Starcraft. ISP wouldn’t know where you are traveling, they practically can’t see you at all or they will see one “unidentified object” that is coming out from your house, they can’t just describe what it is with no evidence to prove what they saw or Proxy can show them an obfuscated IP where it is almost impossible to find you like hiding in millions of people jumping at the Electric Daisy Carnival.
There is an exceptional case. What if only 10 people went to EDC? this is possible.
So if you are abusing the VPN and SOCKS5 in combination, that will make the ISP think you are definitely doing something obviously abnormal, and suspicious, thus you might into doing of illegal stuff but something that FBI agents usually handle,
VPN/SOCKS5 combo, you are wearing a bank robber’s mask on the streets, you can wear whatever you want anywhere in the country, and your justice yourself wearing a mask or costume for your privacy, you just didn’t want to expose your face in public, you have the reason., and me as a friend, I know you are a nice guy but a bit of paranoid. And I truly believe you, because I know who you are. But would other people on the street?
With Socks5, you don’t get that 100% privacy protected like the VPN does, with Proxy tunnel, you will meet someone that is your partner who provided you the tunnel at the end who knows what you have been doing in the tunnel because he owns the tunnels just like ISP owns your internet, and he could record what you have been doing in his tunnel. So if he (tunnel service provider, Socks5 provider) later on someday gets in touch with the local authority investigator, and tells him the true story and provides the records (if he ever was collecting it), then (for any reasons) you again need to go to the court, this time they have evidence what you have been doing in the tunnel.
But they are not sure how you enter the tunnel because they don’t have evidence you are entering the tunnel. That’s the percentage you would be in jail (or possibly not, because of this time, they don’t have evidence that you are the one who entered the tunnel).
Proxy/VPNs are not always a crime. There are also sock4 proxy and HTTP proxy and HTTPS proxy, not all people or users obfuscate the locations to do illegal activities I mentioned above, some just use it to change their IP for an honest reason like to watch Netflix movies without the country limit, they all have their reasons. Like there are many companies that also use the proxy to improve the network along with security and protection.
Setting up both fully Anonymized and Protected
However, if you still want to get both Privacy and Anonymity protected momentarily, the simplest way I would recommend is, build your own Socks5 server, and don’t hide or obfuscated the IP, So at least ISP knows you and whereabouts, in this way, nothing will trigger their system. Thus low chances they will report the FBI your suspicious activities. So again you connect to your server and you will only meet yourself and yourself to watch yourself. Good deal?
Another option that even more hides where you are going also doesn’t require skills to build or deal with servers. Enable an additional friendly option from a VPN. Like I said earlier, VPN can do the most of advanced networking part of work while the proxy is just anonymity, so we use that VPN to connect over “socks-proxy”,
Topology is your VPN connect SOCKS5 first and then VPN right after, in this way, ISP does not know where you are going except for the Socks5 server also what you do is fully encrypted.
Or, some people connect VPN first and SOCKS5 later, in this way ISP can track that you were going, they see you are going to the VPN server (I am not sure why ISP must track you down, but this way they collected what they required to) however afterward it makes you “disappeared” in the middle of the connection, so at the time of arriving at the VPN server, VPN server won’t see you where you headed and would not know what have you done during 3 hours of your missing in action online last night.
The thing is, you can hide both, however you can’t hide that you were using them both. Thus you are triggering the ISP and FBI chances to look closer to what you are doing. More attention than they would do to normal users, but I know nothing will happen to you because you really did not do any illegal activities other than watching some movies. But why would use both catch FBI attention? Because that’s how deep web aka darknet fraudsters set up their internet.
Setting both could be a poison.
Probably the WikiLeaks are true, maybe not, but if they are true, I wouldn’t use them both at the same time. And I think your “free acts and rights of privacy and protection” is fair, but VPN alone is fair enough, so investigators would just quickly skip on you along with other VPN alone users.
Don’t get listed for a stupid reason, and if you still want the bulletproof protection of your privacy, at the same time ISP might want to avoid paranoia customers like you reaching their customer service and wish they have rights to refuse the service to you. Unfortunately, they don’t.
Wrapping up and the easiest solution for you.
If you are not that techy, use VPN. and ISP/VPN companies can’t see what you are doing but addresses.
Don’t use Socks5 if the server isn’t yours and you must hide something.