Does OperaGX harvest your data

VPN
1

Hey, I just heard about a relatively new “gaming browser” sounds like a cop-out, but it seems to have a ton of features id want while getting rid of a lot of the chrome features I see as useless/bulk. I believe its been public for about 4+ months now, so I don’t think many people know about it.

Heres a bulletin list of things id be worried about using a new unknown browser, hopefully, this will help other people wanting to make the choice as well.

Is OperaGX:

Safe - Most Likely

A part of a larger company (Microsoft, Google, etc) - Is a subsidiary of The Otello Corporation.

Does OperaGX:

Have meaningful anti-virus protection - Yes

Harvest your data for private use by the browser - Yes

Harvest your data and give it to 3rd party companies - Yes

Measure keystrokes (a.k.a. read everything you type) - No

Start automatically when you boot your computer - No

Run in the background without consent - Yes

Have to have access to your Twitch/Discord/Reddit/Twitter accounts - Yes

If above is “yes”, is the relationship similar to how DiscordBots gain access - N/A

Other:

Is syncing your accounts with OperaGX harmful/exploitable - Unlikely, but possibly

Am I or my information being tracked whilst using OperaGX browser - Yes

Is tracking and data harvesting optional - Yes, but both are on by default

Who is the CEO of Opera - Zhou Yahui, a Chinese billionaire who gained control when Opera was bought out

Conclusion after research

OperaGX is/was a subsidiary of Otello which in the year 2016, sold Opera Software to a consortium of Chinese companies under the "Golden Brick Capital Private Equity Fund ".

It’s very likely safe to use. Though it is technically “safe” OperaGX does collect data and shares it with third parties to guarantee ad relevance. OperaGX will track your IP while being used. It uses google analytics to track what websites you visit. It’s unknown if it collects keystrokes whilst the browser is open. It runs on Chromium, the web development system owned by Google. Opera does come with free virus/tracking protection, and VPN services it acquired when it bought SurfEasy. All these are optional and can be “turned off” in OperaGX settings.

Edit: added some information.

2

OperaGX is made by Opera Software, who were bought by a number of Chinese companies in 2016. Obviously I’m not saying they are out to steal your data, but some people seem to be very sensitive about Chinese owned software, so putting it out there.

One of these companies has their own browser, 360 Secure Browser, which was accused of having a backdoor by a whistleblower, allowing it to download any file from their servers without user’s permission or knowledge.

3

Vivaldi is Opera’s faithful successor. It has the legendary mouse gestures (eg. RMB+down opens a new tab) and as of now online profile syncing as every other browser does too.

Opera has its merits too but it started going bad after v12 (think of what happened to utorrent) and it was time to move own.

4

Don’t be ridiculous. It’s a Chinese company. It doesn’t harvest your data. It harvests your organs instead.

5

I started to using operagx 1 month ago, sadly for my ignorance i didnt note any difference, do you recommend a browser?

6

Just stick to Edge Chromium as primary and Firefox as secondary browsers. Edge on mobile has built in adblocker and the desktop version has all the Google tracking and advertising crap removed.

If you are in eligible countries, then use Bing Rewards, redeem for Game Pass.

That makes Edge more of a gaming browser :wink:

7

My understanding is that it’s a software to unify all of your launchers into one platform. The browser portion is present because it was built off chrome or Firefox. So it just has it built in already.

8

Or save yourself all the hardware hog that is Firefox and use Brave, from the creators of Firefox but built on the Chrome engine and all Chrome extensions also work in it

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Seriously Firefox takes 10% cpu and 12% gpu watching a 720p twitch stream

Brave takes 11% cpu and 2% gpu

fuck that

9

Opera used to be a fantastic innovative browser. It was outstanding browser that left IE and Firefox in the shade. We were together for well over a decade. But then they cheated on me with Chrome, and I settled for Firefox. It is sad what they have become. But I still have fond memories of our time together. ;p

10

Yeah, personally I’m skeptical of Chinese software. China hasn’t exactly been… super friendly to anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

Thank you for the information I’ll add to the list ASAP.

11

If you’re worried about data collection, I’d recommend using Firefox for a browser, and DuckDuckGo as a search engine.

If you’re just worried a little, I’d say you could keep OperaGX, go into settings disable all data collection, and still id recommend DuckDuckGo compared to google, as a search engine. It by default takes no data from the user, and blocks advertisement tracking, it keeps your history private so advertisers can’t use that either.

It can be a little inconvenient not using google on google chrome, especially if you’re used to it, but it’s probably worth it if you care. A lot of people don’t care and that’s fine too.

12

Why not Firefox as a primary?

13

Or just use Vivaldi, the Chromium based browser from the creators of the old Opera. Still not on par with the 12 Opera, but much better than anything current.

14

www.vivaldi.com is from the ex-boss of Opera before they were sold. I’m using it right now. This is their whole privacy agreement: https://vivaldi.com/privacy/browser/

15

Opera 12 is still the best browser ever made. UI wise. It’s a pity they abandoned Presto after that, and what’s worse, put in all kinds of shit like mandatory search engines you couldn’t even remove from the json config files after a couple updates.

As the other guy said, Vivaldi is where it’s at.

16

Compatibility with the web, you get all of Chrome’s benefits without Google. Also Edge is only browser than can play 4k Netflix, Amazon Video, and Disney+

17

To be fair, some of the things I use for the GX is the VPN-service (to get through websites blocked here in Austria) and the option to turn on the limit of my network usage. I wouldn’t say it’s pointless, but it has some use.

18

It has a RAM, Network & CPU limiter built in. Not just RGB lighting.

19

…which makes Edge a good secondary browser, for sites which refuse to work in Firefox.

20

Sure, if that’s how you prefer it. But over all Edge Chromium and Firefox are the only two browsers needed.