Opera Max Turns To Nagware, Now Prompts Users To Re-enable It Every 12 Hours (androidpolice.com)

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Opera Max Turns To Nagware, Now Prompts Users To Re-enable It Every 12 Hours (androidpolice.com)

Posted by msmash on Tuesday November 1, 2016 @02:40AM from the nagware dept.

Opera has long advertised its free VPN service Opera Max to customers. But it looks like, the company isn't pleased with users keeping its servers at work at all times. Over the last few days, according to a report on AndroidPolice, Opera Max has introduced ads on its apps, as well as links to sponsored apps. But the company is not done yet. It now requires a user to go back to the app and "add time" to the free VPN service every 12 hours if they wish to continue the service. Adding time doesn't cost anything, but it will subject users to an ad on each occasion.

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If you don't like it, don't use it or get your own by StandardCell · 2016-11-01 02:46 · Score: 5, Insightful

Seriously, this stuff isn't free. It costs real money to run a VPN service and you get a whole day's worth of browsing for the cost of viewing one ad. You can still use the Opera browser without nagware if you don't use the VPN.
Re:Free by Applehu+Akbar · 2016-11-01 02:59 · Score: 3, Insightful

If something is free, you're not the customer, you're the product.
What a wealth of personal info.
No, in any such arrangement you're trading specific pieces of knowledge about your habits as part or all of a price. Those of us outside the tinfoil community prefer to send Google our search terms as indicators of personal interest over paying the $150/month that the service costs to provide.
Opera. by ledow · 2016-11-01 03:54 · Score: 3, Insightful

Opera browser was ad-supported but also pay-for to remove them before - what? - 3.5?
It was removed because it just discouraged users and made only a pittance. In fact, the browser went free and then produced its best and most popular versions. Oh, and they had Opera Turbo which is basically the same VPN thing for all that time.
It's only when the development team was sacked many years later that they threw the browser away, made a similar-looking (but severely lacking) Chrome-clone, and then wondered why everyone disappeared and made old-Opera-clones that they feel the need to ad-support it again in an era where "ads" = things to annoy users with because who cares about them, so long as we get 1/1000th of a penny?
Glad to see that I made the right decision to not continue with Opera past version 12.