Hi cb6062, if your main concern is web beacons and trackers, a VPN would not be your first line of defense. Instead, you would lean more on Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection feature: Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox for desktop.

What a VPN can do for you is change your perceived IP address. What I mean is, web servers need your IP address in order to return web pages and other files to your browser. Normally, that is the address assigned to your router by your home or office ISP, and this tends to be very stable over time. When you sign up with a VPN service, you can select a different router (the "exit node") either in your country or elsewhere. This reduces the likelihood that the site will be able to determine your true location or identity.

How does this affect trackers? Let's assume you reject or clear their cookies regularly, so they can't track you that way. Then, when building a new profile of you, they will assume you live somewhere else than where you actually live (where your exit node IP address is). If you change your exit node regularly, it will be more difficult for trackers to connect the dots.

Oh, about this part:

is Mozilla VPN and the FF Private Network extension the same?

Mozilla VPN (https://vpn.mozilla.org/) is a system-wide solution like other VPN software, while the Firefox Private Network extension (https://fpn.firefox.com/) is for Firefox only.

Thanks! Appreciate full answer re what a VPN can and cannot do for privacy. Best ...! CB