I’m not going to lie, I’ve been burned by every free VPN I’ve used due to one scandal or another. I just gave up and pay for Mullvad when I need one. I haven’t done much research, but the Brave VPN is probably a decent free one. Or Tor, but it might not be what you’re looking for.
Nord has been on my shit list ever since one of their servers got physically penetrated and they tried to slide it under the rug rather than notify users