Free VPN integrated in Opera for better online privacy

Some terms from the SurfEasy, Inc company, which is the VPN provider for this service[0]:<p>SurfEasy does not store users originating IP address when connected to our service and therefore cannot identify users when provided IP addresses of our servers. Additionally, SurfEasy cannot disclose information about the applications, services or websites our users consume while connected to our services; as SurfEasy does not store this information.<p><i>However</i>, further down, you have this:<p>SurfEasy is required to comply with law enforcement where subpoenas, warrants or other legal documents have been provided. We may collect and disclose personal information, including your usage data, to governmental authorities or agencies, including law enforcement agencies, at their request or pursuant to a court order, subpoena or other legal process, if there is a good faith belief that such collection or disclosure is required by law.<p>At this point I&#x27;m not quite sure what to make of the above two combined together.<p>[0]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.surfeasy.com&#x2F;privacy_policy&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.surfeasy.com&#x2F;privacy_policy&#x2F;</a>

I&#x27;ve got a few questions, and their puffy news post doesn&#x27;t answer them:<p>* Is this a real VPN service, or simply an HTTP&#x2F;HTTPS proxy?<p>* Is DNS resolution also securely handled through the tunnel, or does this stay in the clear?<p>* What region(s) is their VPN service located in?<p>* Is it possible for other software to use this tunnel in any way?<p>Upon first reading, this doesn&#x27;t seem very different from their old &quot;accelerator proxies&quot; which compressed HTTP traffic into a binary format, and reduced image detail&#x2F;resolution, but with a new marketing spin and those old features removed or disabled.

Is this the same Opera that was recently purchased by a shady Chinese consortium? [1]<p>1:<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;technology&#x2F;2016&#x2F;feb&#x2F;11&#x2F;browser-maker-opera-acquisition-chinese" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;technology&#x2F;2016&#x2F;feb&#x2F;11&#x2F;browser-m...</a>

Couple with native adblocking I&#x27;m very tempted to switch browsers (from FF) and probably do so when available. But it just sounds too good, what is the catch?

The VPN is operated by &quot;SurfEasy Inc., an Opera company based in Canada&quot;.<p>Just tested it and it worked flawlessly to watch a YouTube video that has been blocked in my country. [Edit: Netflix seems to block SurfEasy already. Sad.]

&quot;a native, unlimited and free VPN client, right inside your browser!&quot;<p>Serious question: Money wise, how are they able to afford this?

As of now it&#x27;s working in China. I&#x27;m able to access Facebook&#x2F;Twitter&#x2F;Youtube&#x2F;Google without my normal vpn or ssh tunnel. Will be pretty useful if it stands up to the constant changes. Great work!

If they are bought out by the Chinese, does using this mean the new Chinese owners will see all your traffic?

Doesn&#x27;t this just move trust from your ISP to whomever runs the VPN?

&quot;If you&#x27;re not paying for the product...&quot;

If country is blocking websites, they probably will block that VPN service as well (and possibly Opera website).<p>Why this thing is called VPN anyway? It looks like HTTP proxy should be enough for browser.

What stops someone from making a Firefox plugin that (ab)uses Opera&#x27;s free VPN?

Just tried out the developer version (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.opera.com&#x2F;developer" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.opera.com&#x2F;developer</a> - built-in VPN and ad blocking is currently only available in the developer version of Opera). Both the ad blocking and the VPN works great in the few sites I tested. I especially love that turning the VPN on doesn&#x27;t require any type of login.

&quot;This is why we today have more engineers than ever before working on new features for our desktop browser.&quot;<p>Is this true or just PR BS? Because my understanding is that they had laid off most of the desktop browser team a few years ago and there were only a few left working on it.

To sell your web history themselves.

Though we all know by know that there is no such thing as &#x27;free&#x27;?

An interesting angle is that this might prevent big companies, government agencies, schools etc to disallow just of opera if it was ever possible in the first place. Poor they&#x27;ll just block the IPs with their usual web filter software and none of these promises behind true. Might work for private use in non-repressive countries, but anywhere else it will face the same blocking as any other VPN. Still a great initiative!

I think this is a <i>great</i> idea, in part because it makes it super easy for the less technically minded to secure their public internet traffic. It also brings VPNs and network security discussion more into the public eye.

There&#x27;s another article at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11540648" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11540648</a>, which discussion we merged hither.

I have been using this build today and like it. My only minor gripe is the selection of only 3 locations for the VPN. This one doesn&#x27;t so far from what I see but then again, it is free.

The &quot;VPN&quot; feature doesn&#x27;t get through my work&#x27;s firewall, so I guess that works mostly in your own home or less secure public networks...

With the VPN enabled, I am able to resolve local network computer names and domains that reside in my work&#x27;s local DNS only?<p>How is this resolution working?

The performance is quite bad at the moment. It takes 5-7 seconds to load google.com using either the Germany or US location - from Sweden...

I know they have no incentive to do this, but it would be nice if they let you configure alternate VPN providers. This is a really clean VPN UX.

Just to sell All your web history themselves.

Sounds pretty good, but I still wouldn&#x27;t trust it with anything more than a YouTube video.

Definitely slows down browsing but it is simple&#x2F;easy&#x2F;free so I would expect as much.

Since Opera is now owned by China, I&#x27;d really think twice before using it.

There are too many reasons to keep VPN separate from a browser to list here.

In VPN mode I got 184.75.221.xxx - Toronto In Turbo mode 107.167.108.xxx - US

If I use this though, will Netflix block me from accessing any content?

slightly off topic, but does anyone know a good proxy-as-api service? the ones I&#x27;ve seen are either really bad, or really, really expensive.

Any specifics of what type of VPN protocol its using?

How does the Chromium Opera compare to Chrome?

Free, unlimited VPN for sending all of your secure surfing to CHINA ....

Very slow in US

I love this.

Better online privacy? Ridiculous!!! It is just a honeypot. As the most notorious company which good at stealing people&#x27;s privacy, in China no one trust Qihoo360 (opera is acquired by Qihoo360). Qihoo360 is the pet and lackey of Chinese communist party. Go to hell!

Ridiculous!!! It is just a honeypot. As the most notorious company in China, no one trust Qihoo360 (opera is acquired by Qihoo360). Qihoo360 is the pet and lackey of Chinese communist party. Go to hell!

I really want to like Opera, but I won&#x27;t be using it until its open source, full stop.

Free as in free 500MB and then you have to pay.

This is a game changing feature and I hope other browsers follow suit, I would love to see it implemented in the mobile version especially.