brainw0rms

firefox always and forever, anything else is almost nearly certain to be a honeypot.

What does this have to do with piracy

At the risk of sounding contrarian/lame, you should probably not be doing any of this especially if you don't own the hardware you're using (as mentioned by another commenter).

You don't specify if this is university or middle/high school, but either way you are not entitled to and should not expect any privacy on a network you don't control. Even if you are able to set up a VPN to mask your internet activity, your school's network administrators almost certainly can tell that you are using a VPN, which itself sounds like it would be a violation of your school's network policy and will most likely land you in trouble. Indeed, your repeated attempts to access blocked sites have likely already raised some flags.

Even the workarounds that others here have mentioned (like routing VPN traffic over port 443) are inadequate for a network that is being actively monitored. Believe me, it is very easy to tell when someone is connecting to a VPN this way.

I would quit while you're ahead until you can afford your own hardware/internet connection, and then maybe worry about any notion of privacy. Use your school's internet for what it was intended.

It was a hidden, opt-out feature.

it's literally in the privacy & security section of firefox's settings with its own heading. how is that "hidden"?

average firefox user: screeching on the internet for weeks about some minor new feature or change

me: unticks a box and moves on with my life

i ain't reading all that

i'm happy for you tho

or sorry that happened

They are running a large community in the middle of Europe, in plain view and being personally known, and as such, liable.

skill issue