Debunking misinformation about Opera’s browsers
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burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
@shintoplasm01 said in Debunking misinformation about Opera’s browsers:
Additionally every time you visit a website, when it is finished loading, Opera will make a call to its own servers to an API containing the domain name. Let's say I visit privacyguides.org in Opera, when it is finished loading Opera will make a call to: speeddials.opera.com/api/v1/thumbnails/www.privacyguides.org. This allows for a complete profiling by Opera of every site you visit with their browser. There is no way to disable this, even through flags. The only way around this is by nullrouting speeddials.opera.com, which will also break the news feed on the new tab page if you have it enabled. This service seemingly innocuously fetches thumbnail images for sites for the speeddial squares, but again the privacy cost here is very high for something so trivial that could be accomplished through other means like caching a site's favicon without phoning home, for example. And why does the browser need to acquire these images for every single site that you visit? Why not just a single time when you add a site intentionally to the speed dial section? It makes no sense. Again, we don't know for sure if they're using this data to profile you and store the sites you visit but it would be very trivial for them to do so.
I didn't check myself if this is true, but if it is true, as a resource management concern, I can see wanting to avoid those connections until they're actually needed. Might make those thumbnail previews in the heart icon dialog take longer to show up though in that case. I don't personally see this as a privacy concern, but I can understand why some might.
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burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
The main issue that comes up in r/browsers is that Opera is mostly owned by a Chinese company and therefore the Chinese government can (and is likely to) force the company to force Opera to spy on its users (via the browser itself or MITM methods with Opera's VPN/proxy service) regardless of Opera's headquarter locations, Opera following EU laws and Opera's privacy policy etc. I don't think Opera can do anything to put those concerned people at ease though.
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shintoplasm01 last edited by
@burnout426 Thanks for your responses!
Didn't Opera recently buy back some/all of their shares from that Chinese consortium? Or am I getting this wrong? -
Locutus last edited byArticles about Opera being spyware have been around since Opera was purchased by a company in China. They're no going away any time soon. Brave is the one that peeps should be concerned about. They claim to be privacy centric while having a ads rewards program.
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shintoplasm01 last edited by
@locutus Not really relevant. Firstly, this thread is about Opera specifically - and the specific concerns raised in that post I linked to.
Secondly, while I agree that Brave has its own share of (rather small IMHO) controversies, but AFAIK no-one's identified any suspicious connections being made to Brave's servers.
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Locutus last edited by
@shintoplasm01 said in Debunking misinformation about Opera’s browsers:
@locutus Not really relevant. Firstly, this thread is about Opera specifically - and the specific concerns raised in that post I linked to.
Secondly, while I agree that Brave has its own share of (rather small IMHO) controversies, but AFAIK no-one's identified any suspicious connections being made to Brave's servers.
Lets try that again with the truth this time. As I clearly stated the articles about Opera being spyware do do back a lot loner than you imply. Second Brave has more than their share of controversies.
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canadagoose4everreturns last edited by@locutus What does Brave have to do with accusations made against Opera?
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A Former User last edited by
Thank you for publishing this original Tweet as a blog post.
After using Opera for almost one and a half year I still see myself being confronted with those „information“ about Opera. Still I‘m trusting you with my browsing and I hope, that I won‘t be disappointed by you. And that your own information like this one is for real. -
A Former User last edited by
Adding another thank you for this intriguing post. It's very helpful that Opera handles privacy and security concerns very transparently.
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edu2703 last edited by
The 'Opera sends its data to the CCP' myth is something that unfortunately is being widespread on Reddit.
There's a guy there that I don't know whether he's a bot or a normal person, who in any post or comment on Reddit where Opera is mentioned positively, he spreads his nonsense like 'Opera is owned by a Chinese company', 'Chinese companies are obliged by law to send their data to the CCP, so your Opera data is sent there.
I think this is subject to a lawsuit, as he's managing to damage Opera's image on Reddit and many users are parroting his nonsense. If I speak well of Opera in some subs, they call me 'CCP shill'.
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A Former User last edited by
@edu2703 I don‘t know, why browsers and especially Opera in my view, evoke such heated responses. As I see it, it‘s mostly from users of other non mainstream browsers that have a strong following like Brave, Vivaldi and in the meantime even Firefox.
Brave‘s main selling point is its strong focus on user privacy, so they especially have their users attack competing offerings as not being private. It‘s part of their self consciousness, so to say.
But that doesn’t mean, that they aren‘t attacked by other tribes as well.
Of course, it‘s true that Opera Software‘s greatest stakeholder is Kunlun Tech from China. But that doesn’t mean, they‘re selling or transferring data to China mainland.
I‘m using Opera right now for it fits my needs and is platform independent and not bound to one of the big three directly. -
canadagoose4everreturns last edited by
@celticcross I doubt very much that the makers of other browsers are encouraging their users to spread false information in order to dissuade people from using Opera and bolster their own numbers. It's probably a case of a few disgruntled, conspiracy theorists who simply are afraid of Opera because of its Chinese connections. Is there anything to this "gossip"? I honestly don't know. I'd prefer that Opera was still fully owned by a Norwegian company but that's no longer the case. So in the end, every person must decide for him/herself what to believe. Period.
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A Former User last edited by A Former User
@canadagoose4everreturns said in Debunking misinformation about Opera’s browsers:
@celticcross I doubt very much that the makers of other browsers are encouraging their users to spread false information in order to dissuade people from using Opera and bolster their own numbers. It's probably a case of a few disgruntled, conspiracy theorists who simply are afraid of Opera because of its Chinese connections. Is there anything to this "gossip"? I honestly don't know. I'd prefer that Opera was still fully owned by a Norwegian company but that's no longer the case. So in the end, every person must decide for him/herself what to believe. Period.
You’re certainly right. It‘s not the browser makers themselves but users who swear by them. Some of them behave like zealous missionaries. But I agree, most if not all people don‘t bother that much about which browser they use.
Just use, what you like. If Opera were spying on us, you would have probably heard from a major tech site or from one of their devs who‘d disagree. -
canadagoose4everreturns last edited by
@celticcross said in Debunking misinformation about Opera’s browsers:
@canadagoose4everreturns said in Debunking misinformation about Opera’s browsers:
@celticcross I doubt very much that the makers of other browsers are encouraging their users to spread false information in order to dissuade people from using Opera and bolster their own numbers. It's probably a case of a few disgruntled, conspiracy theorists who simply are afraid of Opera because of its Chinese connections. Is there anything to this "gossip"? I honestly don't know. I'd prefer that Opera was still fully owned by a Norwegian company but that's no longer the case. So in the end, every person must decide for him/herself what to believe. Period.
You’re certainly right. It‘s not the browser makers themselves but users who swear by them. Some of them behave like zealous missionaries. But I agree, most if not all people don‘t bother that much about which browser they use.
Just use, what you like. If Opera were spying on us, you would have probably heard from a major tech site or from one of their devs who‘d disagree.Right on. If Opera were doing these claimed things, we'd have heard about it from many different quarters and there would be plenty of proof forthcoming. Zealous missionaries? haha... exactly... especially from Vivaldi and Brave.
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lancealot last edited by
When using any software you have to build a trust in it, and I trust Opera for the exact reasons explained in this article. Anyone that has any questions about trusting Opera or scared by the "Opera is owned by a Chinese company" smear campaign, should read this post before believing in any of the negativity being spread.
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rekz last edited by
Reddit saying Opera VPN can be read by Chinese govt and that it's security protection can be byapssed by China govt. I'm suspect of those claims, but also surprised this article completely missed the chinese ownership discussion / concerns.
