Lots of people are wondering if Opera’s free VPN is safe and secure. Firefox recently launched a “Firefox Private Network” that many are falsely calling “ Firefox VPN” – despite it also not being a VPN. Technically, Opera should not be marketing this as a VPN at all, but that’s what they are doing. While Opera may have done this little tweak of definitions with the best intentions, end users should understand that this free service by Opera is nowhere near the security provided by a real VPN solution,” Per Thorsheim, founder of PasswordsCon, commented. Other tools you use, including for example email clients like Outlook, won’t use this ‘VPN’,” Špaček told Help Net Security. You still need a full VPN if privacy is what you care about (and you should care about your privacy).

Michal Špaček, a web developer and security engineer based in Prague, researched the way Opera’s VPN works and discovered there’s more marketing than security behind Opera’s claims. HelpNetSecurity had this to say about Opera’s claims:

In other words, Opera’s “free VPN” is not a VPN at all, but rather just a browser proxy. Unlike a true VPN, Opera’s “VPN” only works within the browser, rather than encrypting all traffic on your operating system. Opera VPN is a browser proxy that encrypts traffic between the Opera browser and a proxy server. Your data will be used for targeted ads and promotions.Vague privacy policy allows for international data transfers.Opera is partnering with third parties for data collection (including Google and Facebook).

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