What is the best VPN for privacy?
The short answer
Mullvad is the privacy champion. No account, no email address, cash payments accepted, and a no-compromise no-logs setup. Proton VPN is the strong alternative with open source apps and Swiss jurisdiction, and hide.me the underrated third option.
In detail
If privacy is your main reason for a VPN, your checklist differs from a streamer's. It comes down to how little the provider knows about you, whether the no-logs policy has been externally audited, and which legal jurisdiction the company answers to. On all three, Mullvad is the most radical. You get a randomly generated account number instead of an account, payments can be anonymous, and the flat monthly price has no teaser games attached.
Proton VPN is the pick for privacy without sacrificing daily convenience. Swiss jurisdiction, fully open source apps, an audited no-logs policy, and the only serious free plan without a data cap. Streaming and high speeds work fine on the paid tier, something Mullvad deliberately does not chase.
hide.me deserves an honorable mention. It has demonstrably no logs and a ten-gigabyte free plan that does not ask for a profile's worth of personal data. Whichever you pick, the biggest privacy win is turning it on and leaving it on.