Secure and Private Internet Access

This is a complex topic that demands further explanation, but here's a stub.
If you want to prevent anyone between your computer and the web sites / internet services you are connecting to from seeing both the contents of and what sites/services you are connecting to, use an anonymizing service such as Tor.
If you want to secure communications between two or more networks that you have access to connected through an untrusted network (such as the internet), use a VPN such as OpenVPN.

Tor

From the Tor website:

Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security.

Using:

• For securing just web browsing, use the Tor browser.
• For securing specific applications, use the Tor application itself and then configure your applications to use the local SOCKS5 proxy (by default on port 9050).

OpenVPN

OpenVPN is an open-source secure VPN that runs on just about any platform (Linux/Unix/BSD/Windows/Mac OS/Android/etc). Its configuration can be complex, but there are GUIs to make configuring the servers and clients easier.