Samsung Rescues Data-Saving Privacy App Opera Max and Relaunches it as Samsung Max (venturebeat.com)

Samsung has rescued Opera Software's Opera Max data-saving, privacy-protecting Android app from oblivion and relaunched it today as Samsung Max. From a report: Norwegian tech company Opera, which first became known for its desktop browser when it launched in 1995, has offered mobile browser apps across various platforms for years. But in 2014, it launched the standalone Opera Max app for Android, designed to get its users more bang from their data plan, along with some VPN-like features. The app compresses data such as photos, music, and videos while promising "no noticeable loss of quality." Opera Max can also block background processes to conserve battery and data. The app was given a number of new features over the past few years, but last August the company revealed it was pulling the plug on Opera Max once and for all.

Comments

Good privacy

[110010001000]

Plus it is open source so I can audit what the program does, right? Otherwise I would need to take a corporations word for it.

Re:Good privacy

[I-am-a-Banana]

Why does it have to be Open Source? 99.999% of people can't read code well enough to see security issues. I work for a very large software company and let's say security it huge, it is unbelievably important. And to be honest the opposite argument can be made. What if the only person to read the code does it to find the security flaws to exploit? Obfuscated and compiled code makes it much more difficult to find the exploit.I am all for open source, use it and adore some of it, some is sooooo crappy but the same goes for commercial software.

Re: Good privacy

[Anonymous Coward]

-1 lack of understanding
Please hand in your nerd card at the door on your way out...

App?

[Anonymous Coward]

what is this?

Too bad Samsung phones waste data

[Anonymous Coward]

On two separate occasions I've had my Samsung phone download data over celluar without my consent causing me to go over my data limit. When my contract is up I won't be getting a Samsung phone again.

Re:Too bad Samsung phones waste data

[ctilsie242]

Wake me up when Samsung has phones that have an unlocked bootloader and/or allowing full root access. Otherwise, I'll stick to HTC, Moto, or some other brand which allows me to actually do what I want with my phone. I will say Samsung phones are top notch when it comes to build quality, but a gilded walled garden is still a walled garden, and the key to privacy on Android is a root level (iptables) firewall not depending on a VPN hack.

CORRECTED: Opera is CHINESE

[Anonymous Coward]

Sold out many years beyond.

Nice to hear

[sasparillascott]

Nice to hear Sammy is doing this. Just for the record I believe Opera is now a Chinese controlled company.

Re:Nice to hear

[Anonymous Coward]

No worse than an American controlled company in the part of the world outside of the US.

Waiting for APK to claim they stole this

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just waiting for APK to claim that this idea was stolen from him.

Privacy? does it work with https

[goombah99]

How is it privacy to route all of my data through their servers? It's worse than VPN since they have to be able to have it decrypted to compress it. And will it even work with HTTPS? (and how would you even know, since you are trusting the browser is using https when it says it's using https.)

And the bloatware?

[OneHundredAndTen]

Samsung's modus operandi all too often consists of getting software written by others and add a heck of a lot of bloatware of Samsung's own, rendering the original software almost unusable. Is this what they have done here as well?

From the testimonies,

[Anonymous Coward]

NOPE!

Samsung TVs have horrifying privacy policies, what

[Anonymous Coward]

about this?