Opera Sold

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

And here I am worried that Opera may be spying on me when in fact it would be easier to insert the code into the hardware

And they don't even need to do it with a hardware in our computer or in our home, they can just do it with a hardaware used by our ISP like a router and capture everyone's traffic.

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

For all of us, it comes down to trust: who do we trust and why? The level of trust we extend and under what conditions are usually driven by what we're trying to protect - or protect against. For most users, the practical importance of software-suite code integrity/tightness against criminal hacking attacks far outweighs the real-world risks of nation-state planting of snooping code modules within a commercial program on their system. Criminal hackers can make profitable use of personal data from nearly anyone in the world whose data they can successfully access; nation-states typically have far more selective needs and purposes for acquiring personal data.

In other words, I'm much more concerned with the security of my software code against criminal hacking exploits than I am worried about nation-state penetrations of my system. Were I engaged in criminal actions, a member of an oppressed national people-group, or involved in national-security work, my perspective obviously might differ somewhat. But as has been pointed out, there are other much more productive mechanisms for nation-states to exploit for the data they seek rather than tapping into the general public's commercial software: embedded hardware, ISPs, Internet backbones/trunks, microwave links, etc, etc.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Blackbird, this makes sense. My own particular concern is more related to Qihoo given its past actions. I'm not as bothered by the nation of China itself but rather the consortium that now owns Opera. And yes, it does seem to boil down to trust. With whom do you place your trust? Some argue that placing their trust in Kaspersky is fool-hearty.

Leo demonstrates his trust by using Opera for financial transactions. Do you? I'm just curious mind you.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

For all of us, it comes down to trust: who do we trust and why?

That's it. Like I said a few times before, usually we use/buy something because we like it, it fits our needs and we trust it.
And all the things are, above all, personal.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Leo, on a personal note, do you use any other browsers or is Opera your sole browser? I know you've been extremely active in helping with Opera support for many years now. Were you an Opera user back in its Presto days?

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

Blackbird, ... Leo demonstrates his trust by using Opera for financial transactions. Do you? I'm just curious mind you.

My own situation is not very typical for normal users. Because I routinely handle sensitive data online involving other persons and entities, I almost always use Firefox specifically for financial transactions, and have done so for years. However, a large part of the reason for that is because full, immediate, glitch-free website compatibility at almost any site is virtually guaranteed for Firefox; a lesser reason for it is because I personally feel that I can clear Firefox of any and all browser-stored data/history fragments more securely and easily after a session than with many other modern browsers.

In the rather few personal transactions I've done outside of Firefox, I have used both Opera and Vivaldi with no real qualms about their security. Alternatively, most of my routine, non-sensitive online activity is done using only Vivaldi and Opera, with almost none of that kind of activity being done on Firefox.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Thanks for the feedback.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

do you use any other browsers or is Opera your sole browser?

I have other browsers installed but I pretty much just use Opera. Eventually I use the other browsers to check a page or if a page doesn't work fine in Opera.

Were you an Opera user back in its Presto days?

Well, I've been using Opera since version 3.5x so I guess the answer is yes.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

microwave links

Well, I've been using Opera since version 3.5x...

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

microwave links

Hmm. That looks more like a vampire lynx

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

I don't know how this thread was hijacked into this silliness but I wonder if we could pull it back onto the topic of Opera's ownership and the ramifications.

[g0rg0us]

g0rg0us last edited by

I don't know how this thread was hijacked into this silliness

Well, this is a speciality of @joshl ...

Not sure why someone respectable like @blackbird71 responded to it though.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

I don't know how this thread was hijacked into this silliness

It's the Lounge, a little bit of off-topic is allowed.

Well, this is a speciality of @joshl ...
Not sure why someone respectable like @blackbird71 responded to it though.

So you joined just for it? Not a good start for sure.

Well, let's go back to our normal programming.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

You didn't hover on the image, did you?

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

You didn't hover on the image, did you?

No, I didn't hover on it - I wanted to avoid those fangs as much as possible. The 'microwave links' term I noted earlier referred to the data links used by certain telecoms for relaying some of their traffic, most typically in areas where cables or fiber are too costly to lay (high-rise urban, rural swamps, mountains, etc). You've perhaps seen the large towers with heavy-duty antennae on them. The moment data traffic goes off into the 'ether' by radio/micro-wave, it becomes essentially a directed broadcast - anyone relatively near the path line-of-sight can intercept it, the only challenge then being to break the signal encryption (if any). Moreover, that interception potential exists between every tower along the full relay path, often comprising hundreds of miles - assuming, of course, that the snooper hasn't placed interception gear directly into one of the tower's relay equipment itself.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

HI all i'm new here i was going to install opera i asked the people at opera they assured me its safe to use, whats your all take on it before i install this program for a secondary browser?? thanks for any feedback you can provide.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

HI all i'm new here i was going to install opera i asked the people at opera they assured me its safe to use, whats your all take on it before i install this program for a secondary browser?? thanks for any feedback you can provide.

If you read this topic you may find what you are looking for.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

HI all i'm new here i was going to install opera i asked the people at opera they assured me its safe to use, whats your all take on it before i install this program for a secondary browser?? thanks for any feedback you can provide.

If you read this topic you may find what you are looking for.

Hi leo i did i see you use it and i talked to Opera Dev on the developer blog i feel its safe enough to use and went a head and installed it as my secondary browser, i like the idea of having a proxy vpn to do private searches and such. thanks for the reply back and god bless, and happy new year.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Now this is exactly where I "might" draw the line: using the VPN.

http://www.myce.com/news/operas-free-vpn-criticized-security-experts-79204/

He concludes: "Concluding, Opera’s VPN service is a HTTPS proxy of which hardly anything is known. It should therefore not be trusted and used if you are really concerned about your privacy."

Another article here:

https://www.perfect-privacy.com/blog/2016/06/03/opera-vpn-not-real-vpn/

An excerpt: " What Opera praises as VPN is nothing more than a web proxy server. And due to Opera’s business model it should be assumed that traffic and usage data is being collected and sold to advertising partners.

In March 2015, Opera bought SurfEasy in order to offer a VPN solution to its customers. However, as several security researchers have shown, this is not the case at all: Instead, the users are simply using a web broxy to browse the internet."

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

And here is a little more on the above:

Security researchers also note that there is a potential privacy issue: When setting up the proxy, the browser requests a “device_id” which contains a unique user ID. This device_id is sent to the proxy for every browsing request and will remain permantly tied to the browser.

This becomes worrisome when you look at Opera’s business model. According to their privacy statement Opera reserves the right to pass on data to third parties for advertising and marketing purposes. Addtionally, SurfEasy logs Usage and Bandwifth data.

In summary: Not only is Opera’s “Free VPN” no VPN at all but you also potentially compromise your privacy when using it. As the saying goes: If you are not paying for the product, chances are that YOU are the product.

Users who want to be sure that they are browsing anonymously and that all their traffic is being strongly encrypted should better use a paid service like Perfect Privacy which business model does not rely on third party advertising.