Posts made by macarius6

Hmmm... isn't this California, USA?

Thanks. You can close this thread whenever you like. I appreciate the input from everyone.

Leo, you are correct. I'm not sure how I can gain this confidence. Let me put the question to you as I did to Blackbird. Would you use the Opera browser to bank online and do online shopping? I'm asking this of you personally since I've done some forum reading and learned that you know a great deal about both the Opera browser and its history.

Since January of this year, Opera has dropped 0.3 % user share while Chrome has risen 4.0 %. I think there is a perception among many users that Opera's security has been compromised by the sale. I don't know that much about browsers to make a reasonable decision which is why I put the question to others. I suppose I'm looking for some scientific and convincing evidence that my fears are unfounded. Research into this has proven fruitless. I know that Google does not have a good track record when it comes to privacy but I suppose most people would rather trust an American company than one now owned by a Chinese consortium. I'm still undecided.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Good questions. Can you answer them and if so, how? I suppose in partial answer to you questions I would say that at some point we all have to exercise faith given the fact that we have not "vetted the software" ourselves. So, to whom do I give that faith? China? Russia? Romania? Norway? Iceland? America? Being American I'm more inclined to the last three and that is based upon evidence of past cyber crimes emanating from China, Russia and Romania as well as the fact that China has proven themselves time and again to do whatever it pleases.

Let me ask you a question relating to my initial post. Do "you" do your banking and/or shopping using the Opera browser?

Look, Leo. Thanks for the feedback but saying it "has been discussed already" is hardly any substantive assurance. You know as well as I that Eastern Bloc countries (i.e. Romania, Russia) and China are notorious for their cyber crimes. The situation (i.e. the sale of Opera to two Chinese companies one of which we know has been caught over privacy violations) suggests that we proceed with caution in the use of the Opera browser. When you say that it is subject to Norwegian laws, do you honestly believe that China will obey them? Have you seen in the news how China is essentially thumbing its nose at Vietnam, Brunei, the Philippines and the US as it claims most of the South China Sea islands even though it has no right to them whatsoever? China is huge and powerful and does not abide by our rules. Can you believe that it will follow our laws concerning data gathering and privacy?

I see a few topics relating to the sale of the Opera browser to a Chinese consortium, one of which appears to have a rather unsavory reputation when it comes to privacy. There really doesn't seem to be any resolution to the doubts and questions raised in relation to the expectation that an Opera user can have a reasonable expectation of security from prying Chinese government officials and Chinese hackers. Currently I do not have the Opera browser installed since I've yet to convince myself that there is no backdoor built into the browser. I know that no one hear can give a definitive answer to my question but what I'd like to ask you is: how do you deal with this situation? Do you visit your banks, shop online, make comments on political forums and still feel reasonably safe in doing so?

Thank you for any feedback you can give me to help me determine whether the risk is worth it or not.