Opera’s In-Browser VPN is Out

Image by portalgda
Image by portalgda

Opera is trying it’s best to get people to take online privacy seriously, by putting a free, unlimited, VPN client right inside the browser. Naturally, I tried it out, and it is super simple. Just turn it on in the settings, and your web traffic is now using a VPN connection. Alternatively, you can also have Opera block ads for you, and take control of cookies.

You can let Opera optimize the location to the fastest speed through the VPN, or you can select the location manually. I chose the US connection, and let Opera choose for me and both seemed equally fast.

So, I applaud Opera for what it is trying to do, giving web-surfers a free way to protect their privacy.

If you travel a lot, of course, you should also understand the limitation of Opera’s VPN tool. It only works inside of the Opera browser. That’s great if you’re just using the browser to login to everything you need in the cloud. It does nothing to protect your email client, other browsers, instant messaging apps and so on. Not that I’m blaming Opera for that, they can only control what happens inside of their browser after all, but don’t make the mistake of assuming that VPN will protect all of your data when you connect to that hotel Wifi. If you’re not using another VPN client, just stay in the Opera environment.

 

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