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Opera Adds Free VPN-Client With Unlimited Usage To Its Desktop Browser
On Thursday, Opera announced that it is adding a free built-in virtual private network (VPN) client to its desktop browser. The feature, which isn't available on other popular Web browsers, will allow users to hide their IP address, unblock firewalls and access region-locked content. It will also help users protect their personal information on public Wi-Fi networks as it offers 256-bit encryption. "Everyone deserves to be private online if they want to be," Krystian Kolondra, SVP at Opera told Slashdot in a statement. "By adding a free, unlimited VPN directly into the browser, no additional download or extensions from an unknown third-party provider are necessary."
The move comes a year after Opera acquired North American VPN company SurfEasy. Unlike Chrome and Firefox, which require you to use an additional third-party tool (such as an extension), Opera's VPN offering is baked in the browser. What's more, it is free and offers unlimited usage. The feature is available on Opera's Mac, Windows, and Linux clients.
The move comes a year after Opera acquired North American VPN company SurfEasy. Unlike Chrome and Firefox, which require you to use an additional third-party tool (such as an extension), Opera's VPN offering is baked in the browser. What's more, it is free and offers unlimited usage. The feature is available on Opera's Mac, Windows, and Linux clients.
Opera is still (and will probably always be) that weird guy no one really likes but few have specific complaints about.
Personally I'm strongly debating switching to chromium because firefox has gone to shit and palemoon doesn't look long for this world unfortunately. I never even considered opera, but despite this reminder that they are still around and despite my admission that I don't really have anything specific against them, I'm still not going to.
Now that Opera is going to be owned by the Chinese, they cannot offer anything compelling. No, thank you. No one in their right mind will ever trust the Chinese. Opera is not open source, and because the Chinese company that is buying Opera has close ties to the Chinese government, you cannot expect any privacy whatsoever. Simply put, Opera is, IMHO, no longer a real option to those concerned with privacy.
Now that Netflix is actively blocking VPN users, I wonder how this will play out?
It won't take long for researchers to demonstrate how they bypassed the privacy mechanisms and could still track people anyway.
They want their web browser back!
No thanks. Most "free" VPNs are well-publicized to data farm you in exchange for being free (a la Windows 10). If you actually want quality and privacy, you have to pay for it. My preference is AirVPN but there's other good ones out there.
Opera is being bought by a Chinese tech company with strong ties to the Chinese government. Opera is, IMHO, no longer to be trusted. Sad.
When people discuss Opera, they always bring up the features they introduced that are a part of all browsers now; will this be one more?
Cool Idea, too bad they screwed up the rest of the browser by switching to Blink(Chrome), cutting features, and screwing up the UI by "modernizing it."
I'll stick with Seamonkey, Otter, and Qupzilla.
It will also help users protect their personal information on public Wi-Fi networks as it offers 256-bit encryption.
This is why I avoid non-encrypted public Wi-Fi whenever possible - too big a chance of a passive eavesdropper (the risk of an evil-twin/man-in-the-middle exists even with encrypted WiFi if the passphrase is well-known, so that by itself not a reason to prefer encrypted WiFi over unencrypted WiFi).
If the home-internet providers would offer "VPN service to make it look like you are in your home city" that would make "not cutting the cord" that much more attractive.
Heck, if they could work out a joint deal with the media companies and the Netflixes of the world so I could watch "only in [my home country] movies while traveling abroad" I might even be willing to pay $1/day extra for out-of-country use.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I don't care nor want anything proprietary.
Bank and medical ones, that is! God I love this Putin's favorite browser browser.
The abusive admins at Wikipedia have already blocked Opera VPN users from editing. The abusive admins won't stop until no IP user can edit.
I really don't care for example that they catch that I am trying to watch the daily show from germany or the rare few video which tells me "GEMA blocked blahblah youtube license not apid wahhwahhwambulance"
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Fine let us get one based in China, or Russia, perhaps Iran, or Saudi Arabia.
Or do you think your European countries are so much more noble that they wouldn't do such a thing? Perhaps they are just better at hiding it. You know without constitutional levels of freedom of the press for many members.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
(posting anon since I used to work at Opera a decade ago)
Description from SurfEasy's chrome extension page:
We are SurfEasy; an Opera Software company. We started with a Kickstarter campaign 4 years ago, and 2 years later launched our VPN. This year, we were thrilled to be acquired by Opera, to bring our service to even more people across the globe.
We have privacy experts like Michael Geist on our team, to ensure that we’re at the forefront of the privacy industry and to make sure that we’re always on the right track.
We are a no-log network, meaning that we don’t keep any logs about your information, your browsing data or your download history. We don’t need this information, because we don’t sell it on to third parties. We make our money through charging a small amount for our service. This means we’re accountable, reliable, and truly secure.
So I guess they will still charge for subscription if you use a non Opera browser with a SurfEasy extension, but will give it away for free if use their client browser?
The browser is compromised by the Chinese and the bogus VPN claims are there to lure the undesirables. Here's a secure browser with proxy option: https://epicbrowser.com/
We don't have a Constitutional level of freedom of the press in the US. Fuck, we don't have a Constitutional level of any kind of freedom in the US.
Both Firefox and Chrome support SOCKS, which is just as good as VPN for web browsing and a lot easier to set up (most hosting accounts effectively include it as part of SSH service).
For the average Joe, not so much.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
That's a very odd comment. as it's so clearly and obviously false in the case of security services like VPNs:
(i) Commercial VPN services generally don't use open source VPN systems. As a result, what they're doing behind the scenes is completely unknown and by definition this makes them a security risk to use.
(ii) The 'P' in VPN stands for "Private". By definition a VPN cannot be private when a commercial untrusted entity has access to your Virtual Network.
(iii) All companies are easily undermined by malicious governments and other bad actors, and so a commercial VPN can never offer a strong guarantee of privacy and security.
If you want a VPN with security and privacy that you can rely on, the only good approach is for the trusted members of your VPN to run their own open source VPN package between them. There is no alternative that doesn't entail a large dose of wishful thinking.
Payment implies commercial, but quality in a VPN requires security and privacy. Those two requirements are in conflict --- a commercial enterprise cannot provide them regardless of how much you pay.
Your data will now travel safely before being re-routed to China for some DPI
Even if it is based in NA, a VPN is always better than nothing:
1: On an untrusted Wi-Fi network, it blocks snooping, FireSheep attacks, and other monkey business.
2: Some ISPs actively MITM http connections. I've had one ISP that actually would inject pop-unders for surveys. Another ISP would add identifying headers to every HTTP transaction. A VPN ensures that those shenanigans don't happen, or are at least moved to the VPN provider.
3: It raised the bar for geolocation. Yes, it can be done by sophisticated timing attacks, but all the end site gets is the VPN provider's location for the most part.
4: It isn't Tor, but it provides some IP address shielding, without having the VPN exit blocked wholesale at virtually every website as Tor exit nodes tend to wind up.
In this case, anything is better than nothing.
You are wholly uninformed. Huawei and other Chinese concerns who are certainly capitalistic as you say, have been found to have included "spyware" ROMS in their networking gear. Google it. It happened and happens. Why do you think their gear is not allowed on federal networks or contractor networks. Ditto Check Point firewalls and network appliances. How do I know this. Firewall engineer for one of the largest ISPs in the nation who deal with the federal government daily.
The Chinese are not to be trusted despite what you are anyone in favor of dealing with them may state.
Ars Technica is a little more cautious about what is being offered here --- which is an alpha release for the desktop only.
I am a little wary myself when someone promises "no fees, no limits" on services which tend to get expensive as you scale up. Opera bundles free, unlimited VPN client into its browser
Finally, some good reasons to try Opera! All the traffic from my proprietary, closed-source browser will be routed through the same sever and logged in one convenient place. I won't have to bother logging packets any longer since I'll know for sure they're all going to an Opera server. I'll be in a pool with all 8 other Opera users sharing an IP address. That'll make it much easier for advertisers to deliver targeted content.
Everybody wins!
Actually it guarantees somebody is in the middle of all your communications
Now it's a question of if you trust them
My experience with Chinese: Chinese think Chinese are superior, so it is okay to mistreat anyone else.