Cloaking your entire home in a VPN cone of silence isn't always the most practical solution to your metadata privacy concerns.

Australia's metadata retention scheme is now in effect, with telcos keeping your activities on file for two years just in case investigators feel the need to trawl through your private life. Some people argue that if you've got nothing to hide then you've got nothing to fear – a long-standing mantra on the slippery slope toward totalitarianism.

While the concept of metadata retention sounds rather unsettling, keep in mind that the scheme doesn't actually retain your browsing history. Nor is your telco recording your phone calls or keeping the contents of your emails and text messages.

Metadata retention doesn't keep the content of your messages, just the details of whom you contacted, how, where and when. Admittedly that still sounds pretty bad when you consider how much you can glean from this information.

Drawing the line

Between paranoia and complacency, it's hard to know where to draw your own realistic line in the sand when it comes to privacy. If you're already entrusting a treasure trove of sensitive personal information to the internet then you might want to reevaluate your approach to social media and cloud services before you fret too much about metadata retention. Also harden your browser to thwart online tracking.

If you are keen to thwart metadata retention efforts then a Virtual Private Network is a good starting point – building an encrypted tunnel to stop your ISP and others snooping on your online activities – but cloaking all your activities is harder than it sounds. In the age of the Internet of Things, you can't run a VPN client on many of the internet-enabled devices in your home.

One solution is to run a VPN on your broadband gateway modem/router, to protect all of the data going in and out of your home via your fixed-line broadband connection.

Unfortunately few modem/routers can handle this, when they list "VPN support" they typically mean the ability to act as a VPN server so you can securely connect to your home when you're out and about. The ability for a modem/router to act as a VPN client for running all your home traffic through someone else's VPN server is much harder to find.

If you're determined to go down this path then you might look to a DD-WRT compatible router which can be modified with custom firmware which supports a VPN client. Alternatively you might invest in a router which is pre-configured to support a VPN, such as WiTopia's CloakBox.

Another option is to run a VPN on a computer connected to your broadband modem via Ethernet cable and then use software like Connectify to generate a protected Wi-Fi hotspot. Inversely you can connect the computer to your home Wi-Fi network and then run a VPN connection from the Ethernet port.

Pick and choose

Keep in mind that it's not always practical to run every device in your home behind a VPN. Depending on VPN provider, you might experience a significant speed drop when you engage your VPN and also face monthly data transfer limits. It's still likely faster than TOR, which usually isn't the best tool for the job.

In most homes it will be more practical to only run some devices behind a VPN, such as the primary PC or Mac you use for web browsing.

Some VPN services come with desktop software which will automatically launch when you start your computer, you'll even find "kill switch" options which sever your internet access if the VPN fails to connect. You'll also want to check for DNS leaks compromising your security.

If you're going to all this trouble just to mask your BitTorrent traffic then you might consider signing up for a VPN service like PIA, IPVanish or NordVPN which also offers SOCKS5 proxy. You'll need a BitTorrent client which supports password-protected SOCKS5 proxies.

As for mobile devices, iOS and Android have built-in VPN clients which you can enable with a click after you've entered the login details for your VPN service. You'll also find VPN apps like TunnelBear, which also offers desktop software along with a desktop Chrome browser plugin.

Of course running a VPN on your smartphone isn't going to mask your location from the mobile towers, which can produce rather incriminating evidence if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's also not going to mask your metadata when you're making voice calls or sending text messages over the mobile phone service (if you're concerned about this you should investigate secure messaging apps).

There's no magic bullet when it comes to online privacy, you need to think carefully about what you're trying to hide and who you're trying to hide it from. What's your strategy for protecting your privacy in the age of mandatory metadata retention?