Even with a VPN, there's quite a bit of data-mining that can be done just by looking at the total traffic, ignoring destinations. An interested ISP could probab

Even with a VPN, there's quite a bit of data-mining that can be done just by looking at the total traffic, ignoring destinations. An interested ISP could probably still guess when you're watching streaming video, when people in your household typically wake up, sleep, and leave for work, etc. You could make that harder by padding the link with dummy traffic, though, like some darknet software does. That'd probably work, especially if we assume the ISP is just doing aggregate data-mining on usage data, not targeting you specifically and willing to spend much time de-obfuscating your obfuscation scheme. But it might be expensive to be pumping dummy data 24/7 if your VPN or home connection has traffic limits or bills by the GB. Something similar is a concern with power companies as well. Even though electric meters only record total usage (kW being used by the apartment, not tagged with what it's being used for), the move to smart meters that record power usage frequently has led to some concern, because you can do all kinds of analysis just from the raw electric-usage data. Different devices/appliances tend to have noticeable signatures, so an interested power company can tell when the washing machine goes on, when the TV is in use, arrive at good guesses of your sleeping and cooking patterns, etc.