I’ve made it a rule of thumb for me to never use free VPNs as they are known to steal and use your data. However, the Opera browser (from what I believe) is a large and trusted web browser so it would make sense that their free VPN that comes with the browser should be safe to use. I’m a dummie when it comes to softwares and all that stuff so excuse me for asking a dumb question. Just wanted to get other peoples’ opinions on this.
There have been reports of Opera being bought by a Chinese company and its lead developers ditching the project to start another one called Vivaldi (r/vivaldi). I’ve heard that Opera’s built-in “VPN” is nothing more than a glorified proxy which routes all your web activity through Opera’s servers. How much you’d trust Opera is up to you — I wouldn’t trust them personally.
Mullvad is an excellent VPN and only $5 or so a month. Worth the investment.
If you want a free VPN, go with Proton. The unpaid plan is quite limited, but it does its job and it’s a trusted provider.
IIRC Opera has been bought by a chinese investor. I wouldn’t trust them with anything.
If it’s free how are they going to make money off it? Hosting a VPN service is not cheap at all.
Opera’s free vpn is a trash imo as is Opera itself
The device in the browser is a proxy, not a VPN. It only protects your browser, not your whole machine. Since it’s only a browser proxy, none of your info is safe. Only a real VPN will do that.
It’s built in their browser, so I would assume they make money off of people using their browser via ads and so on.
I’v only ever seen Mullvad regarded as one of if not the best all around VPN providers.
But the browser is free too, right?
I wouldn’t trust it to be honest, but I don’t have hard evidence.
They display adds in their browser, usually after updates. Also tight integration with booking, etc. That’s my understanding of their revenue stream.
I can’t find anything that is blocked by nextdns by using Opera, either
Believe what you want to, I’ve tested all the well known VPN providers (which I’m not allow to mentioned cos it’s against the PTIO rules) Mullvad doesn’t come close to speed, usability, stability, security and geo location availability compared to the other “commercial” VPN providers.