Today many of the popular websites I visit, such as amazon, are no longer working when I jsut type "amazon.com" in to the URL bar. I'm now taken to a "this site can't be reached" page with a URL of https://operainstantsuggest.ampxdirect.com/amazon?partner=operainstantsuggest&sub1=amazon&sub2=operabrowser&sub3=us.

It turns out my network adblocker is blocking Opera from being able to route my connection to sites like Amazon through their affiiliate (akadns.net) in order to make money off my web browsing.

PiHole Log;

HTTPS
operainstantsuggest.ampxdirect.com
(blocked adlanding.admarketplace.net.akadns.net)
Blocked (gravity, CNAME)

How do I disable this alarming behavior in Opera, or do I need to switch browsers?

@leocg

Chrome = Type in amazon.com, taken right to amazon.
Firefox = Type in amazon.com, taken right to amazon.
Edge = Type in amazon.com, taken right to amazon.
Opera = Type in amazon.com, connection tries to route through an Opera affiliate and fails to reach amazon because my pihole adblocker caught it.

In all those browsers I've disabled invasive settings, yet Opera is the only one routing my "amazon.com" attempt through an affiliate. So yes, an invasive setting that users can't disable is something to worry about and is why I'm uninstalling Opera.

@boult99 That is all already disabled, including settings elsewhere. I'm a system/network admin, so disabling all that on day 1 with a new browser install is a habit.

For whatever reason, if I don't type out amazon.com completely, speeddial...which is seemingly completely disabled...auto-completes it and tries to route me through an opera affiliate. I have never purposely or intentionally used speeddial or any of the other steal-your-info/make-us-money featues of this browser, or any other browser for that matter.

@sgunhouse I don't, I have completely emptied and disabled anything speeddial related.

@der-himmelssheriff In the opera URL bar, notice the little icon to the right...it changes as you type out the url. Empty url bar, the icon is a magnifying glass.

As I type out "amazon.com" it changes from magnifying glass to a clock icon. So it first starts referencing your browser history to determine the site you're wanting to access as you type it out. By the time I get to "ama" it wants to auto-complete "amazon.com" and the clock icon changes to a four-square icon. When it switches to that four-square icon, at this point it is leveraging/ will try to route you through their affiliate. If it switches to the globe icon, it is using your selected search engine.

I can recreate this over and over using "amazon.com" but no other sites so far are triggering that four-square icon.

@der-himmelssheriff I saw that portion of the policy, but that sounds like a different functionality, and one the user has some sort of control over. What I found, and the urls/services pihole sees, don't seem to be mentioned anywhere in that policy and not tied to any functions that can be toggled off or changed in settings.

I've sent my findings and screenshots of this thread to a handful of media outlets to see if any are interested in picking up this story, since Opera is clearly doing something here that no other browsers I've tested are doing.

@der-himmelssheriff They're likely just going to keep spamming the thread with the Opera privacy agreement. Best we can do is make this issue well known to the community. I've already posted several threads to reddit about it, with logs from pihole and my firewall, and other information.

@leocg

Chrome = Type in amazon.com, taken right to amazon.
Firefox = Type in amazon.com, taken right to amazon.
Edge = Type in amazon.com, taken right to amazon.
Opera = Type in amazon.com, connection tries to route through an Opera affiliate and fails to reach amazon because my pihole adblocker caught it.

In all those browsers I've disabled invasive settings, yet Opera is the only one routing my "amazon.com" attempt through an affiliate. So yes, an invasive setting that users can't disable is something to worry about and is why I'm uninstalling Opera.

@der-himmelssheriff Based on my findings and the URLs involved...this is very much a hidden feature in Opera that users aren't allowed to disable.

@leocg I've disabled that and all the other usual stuff one would disable.

The feature, if the URLs are any indication, is called Opera Instant Suggest...yet that doesn't get you any relevant search results anywhere online. It's a seemingly completely hidden-from-the-public feature in Opera that you can't disable, and is only exposed if you have a good local or network ad blocker.