this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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Stop using Opera Browser and Opera GX (www.spacebar.news)
submitted 9 months ago by corbin@infosec.pub to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm just tired as the next person about posts that provide a million half-assed reasons to not use anything but Firefox. But honestly If we don't stop these places from building dossiers on us and locking us out of websites that are unsanctioned by them, It will a erode our opportunities in years to come.

Right now, it doesn't feel like it matters. Lexis-Nexis knows every nickel you ever spend and every creditor that ever ran a check on you, Google knows what type of porn you like to watch, tik tok and opera are storing everything that you've ever been into in a place that can be retrieved by other governments.

At some point we're going to have to take our privacy more seriously. Preferably before 1984 actually becomes real.

[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.world -1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

If you could just provide some citations about Opera intrusively tracking and building profiles then I'd happily switch. The thing is, though, it's still leagues better than Chromium in that regard.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

For what it's worth their privacy policy does say they gather telemetry and they did pay how many billions for the company?

Almost everybody else is gathering telemetry as well obviously. The actual root of the concern is that the companies are based in China, you know the great firewall of China, China. The Chinese government holds a stranglehold on the companies that operate within them. For example if you have a US company and you want to do some business in China you have to find a Chinese partner company to sponsor you. Everything you store there everything you touch runs through the Chinese government. If they want any of the data, that required to be given access.

If you remember when Google went to open a data center in China there was a pretty big kerfuffle. It was because the Chinese government was going to be handed keys to the kingdom for anything that was stored in China. For better or for worse it's just how they operate.

You may not feel the same way but I'm sure you at least get the concern there.

Personally I try not to use Google integrated Chrome or Microsoft integrated chromium. I still use brave when I need a Chrome browser and that's not the best either. They'd sell me up the river if they decided they needed a buck.

I honestly wish we had more Firefox competition. And unified plug-in languages. The stuff that Opera and brave are providing aren't difficult to mimic. And I really like there being developers fighting YouTube ad blocking and website pop-ups and pay wall bypasses.

I'm not saying oh my God they're going to rape you over the coals right now but do consider that the people that are making these crazy ass posts aren't delusional or entirely wrong, and do use who's getting your data on your consideration.

[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Usually the saying is "rake you over the coals" but I kind of like your version in the context.

[–] joenforcer@midwest.social 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Opera IS a Chromium browser, you doofus!

[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Ah wow you're right, ever since Opera 15 they dropped the presto engine. Still, my point was supposed to be they're much more privacy friendly than Google Chrome, and that still stands to be argued.