Solved Vivaldi Browser: Privacy Review

fjc1029

Here's a new review on Vivaldi Browser from a blog that I follow. Be interested in your thoughts. Thanks!
https://popzazzle.blogspot.com/2021/10/vivaldi-browser-privacy-review.html

MattEclipsed

Edit: The question has since been better addressed in our FAQs, found here -
https://vivaldi.com/security/common-questions/#privacytests

The old response
The tests on that page are largely aimed at fingerprinting and tracking heuristics. Rather than relying on heuristics to detect fingerprinting or tracking being used - which can either break websites or create false positives and negatives - Vivaldi's tracker blocking simply blocks the websites that use it. This allows the APIs to work on websites that use them for legitimate purposes. There are pros and cons to either approach, but we favour the approach that causes the least disruption on legitimate websites, while still protecting your privacy.
That page does show a couple of minor things that should be different, however, and we are looking into those.

PS. This post was marked as a "solution" for better visibility, as the topic of Privacy Tests is brought up fairly often.

mib2berlin

@fjc1029
Hi, for me the most important question is: Can I trust a company?
Many people trust Microsoft, Apple, Google even Facebook and so forth, I don´t.
The Vivaldi owner are proofed for 25 Years or so to be correct about user care and security. I trust them.
About Google services, you can disable all in privacy settings but Vivaldi cant disable it by default. As Vivaldi add the settings for Google extensions the forum was flooded by messages about log in to Gmail, cant install extensions and many more.
By the way, third party cookies are disabled by default, no idea why it was enabled for the tester installation.

Cheers, mib

fjc1029

@mib2berlin Good point. I agree with you.

luetage

@mib2berlin I believe the default is to allow third party cookies in regular windows. The reasoning for the decision is clear, it potentially breaks webpage functionality.

valiowk

I cringed at the part where the author thought mimir.vivaldi.com was for collecting user stats—the purpose of every Vivaldi subdomain (e.g. bifrost) is clear to anyone with a minimal knowledge of Norse mythology...

dbouley

I have to admit, when ever I fire up Vivaldi's web browser now and again, it does make me cringe a little bit when I see the Google related settings in the Preferences. I disable anything I can that relates to Google.

I don't (knowingly) use Google or Google products (on my computers anyway) and that sacrifice means a great deal to me. If someone I know wants me to watch a video or share a file and uses Google to do it, I politely decline and tell them I cannot watch/view their link.

I guess I'd feel better if Vivaldi didn't have any connections to Google at all. But, with their browser being based on Chromium, I don't know if that's even possible.

Apanthropist

https://privacytests.org/ I've never heard of them but they claim to have tested a whole bunch of browsers including Vivaldi, the link should go to a table of the test results. I leave it for general interest. (If you are interested.)

stc1000

Completely agree with dbouley above. There should be no default links to Google whatsoever in the browser settings. I always make sure they are all off but most people don’t look at the detailed settings.

We should be preventing as many ‘helpers’ to the likes of Google and Facebook (Meta).

luetage

@stc1000 It’s a mistake the option even exists. You cringe because the option is being provided, in other browsers the option doesn’t exist and you aren’t offended and live happily with the Google services. People disable Google services because of a blind hatred, which is very popular among self appointed power users, but the same users wonder why they can’t install extensions anymore or can’t log in to their Gmail account. It’s sad. This should have been hidden in experiments behind a Konami code so users don’t shoot themselves in the foot and annoy everyone else about it months afterwards. /rant

usergiu

Here is another Open source privacy test of the browsers:

https://privacytests.org

Is there any way to improve Vivaldi score?

Catweazle

I think these tests are not entirely fair. It is correct that Vivaldi as it is downloaded, it is not the most private, but it is the only one where it is possible that the user himself in the configuration can determine how much of Google he wants to use, that is, Vivaldi is as private as the user wants it to be .

Like it or not, many people need to use Google services, be it in the professional field, in colleges and universities and others, where certain Google services do not have really valid alternatives, and where completely degoogled Chromiums often have problems.

Even Firefox needs to use some Google APIs, so as not to lose compatibility with web formats, precisely introduced by Google.

MattEclipsed

Edit: The question has since been better addressed in our FAQs, found here -
https://vivaldi.com/security/common-questions/#privacytests

The old response
The tests on that page are largely aimed at fingerprinting and tracking heuristics. Rather than relying on heuristics to detect fingerprinting or tracking being used - which can either break websites or create false positives and negatives - Vivaldi's tracker blocking simply blocks the websites that use it. This allows the APIs to work on websites that use them for legitimate purposes. There are pros and cons to either approach, but we favour the approach that causes the least disruption on legitimate websites, while still protecting your privacy.
That page does show a couple of minor things that should be different, however, and we are looking into those.

PS. This post was marked as a "solution" for better visibility, as the topic of Privacy Tests is brought up fairly often.

Catweazle

@matteclipsed , I also think that these comparative privacy tests should be taken with a grain of salt.
I know that no browser can protect 100% privacy, not even TOR is capable of doing it and even less if it is not used in conjunction with a VPN.

Sure, you can use certain extensions, like CyDec, Trace, and the like, to add even more privacy to Vivaldi, but at the cost of seeing only a black screen on many pages or getting blocked.

But it is a big difference between browsers that actively try to avoid tracking and filtering too much user data as much as possible, as Vivaldi and some others do, leaving the choice of the user to what degree they want it and those who encourage and they are based directly on surveillance advertisings, because they have this as an income system.

Of the latter, not even Firefox is free, since it also bases its income on this surveillance, using companies such as Alphabet Inc (Google), Nest and others, to give the corresponding trackers to the user.

Many times Brave is also mentioned as very private, which it is certainly, but due to its reward system for certain sponsors, it does not block them like others, including precisely Facebook, which can happily continue to track the user.

Opera is perhaps the worst of all, it is probably the browser that spies the most on the user, which also cheats with a supposed free VPN that is not really such and that records the user's activity.

On the other hand we have UR, from a small French company, which is a browser that fulfills its privacy purpose and does it even better than Brave, but also in its highest degree of privacy settings, it breaks many pages.

In summary

1 - 90% of privacy depends on the user himself and his common sense.
2- The underlying problem is the practice of monitoring and tracking the user, thereby violating his basic rights. Without this, all these protections that a browser needs become unnecessary. Adding that today, Vivaldi is the only browser company active on the list that stands in solidarity against these bad practices.

fjc1029

Very good discussion, and educational, thank you for your thoughts and feedback.

usergiu

@matteclipsed Thank you for detailed answer. So far Vivaldi is my favorite browser and it is important to know that Vivaldi Team is always looking in different comparation and make sure that their product is the best one. Much appreciate your efforts!

kshitijsubedi

I came across this website https://privacytests.org/ which they quote as "Open-source tests of web browser privacy."

Evaluating the result, Brave Browser's score is far better than Vivaldi's if we compare all chromium-based browsers. Personally, I didn't understand all those test parameters but the dev team can look upon that and maybe implement changes if possible in the future.

luetage

@kshitijsubedi Phew, I’m glad Vivaldi didn’t underperform severely. But seriously, the only metric worth anything is the fingerprinting resistance test. All chromium browsers are equally bad at it. If you want more privacy, use Tor.

jumpsq

It's always nice to see additional privacy features / tracking prevention, and Brave is also Chromium-based. So I agree with OP here that vivaldi developers should at least have a look at how to prevent certain privacy leaks.

Would be interesting to know how well the Vivaldi Ad/Tracker blocker performs in their scheme (with the default sources). uMatrix/uBlock are much more powerful, but I would not be surprised if these larger trackers are already blocked quite nicely by vivaldi itself,

kshitijsubedi

@luetage NO, Not gonna left Vivaldi for Tor. Not that level of serious privacy freak to switch for Tor.

Catweazle

I'm not overly concerned about these tests, which are usually done with a browser in its default configuration.
For certain privacy holes that Vivaldi may have, there are very good extensions to alleviate it.
I am still more interested in the result that Browserleaks gives me, which gives me very good results with the configuration and extensions that I use, that is, the only result that corresponds to reality is that I do not use a touchscreen and that I live in Spain. Everything else is false or with an N/A.
If I also use a VPN, my public IP and ISP will not appear either.