Privacy Without Compromise: Proton VPN is Now Built Into Vivaldi

Nekomajin

@LarsScholz
If you see a new button on the toolbar, what do you do first? Do you click on it too see what it does or remove it?

Catweazle

@luetage, Proton is trustworth as an excepcion in the Store, maybe also Windscribe, bit it has an datalimit/month and also not more servers.
As said before, always better an VPN for desktop, for the browser for skipping country restrictions is better a free proxie server, like the mencioned CyberGhost, which make a good job, no logs and private, no account needed.

barbudo2005

@Nekomajin

Said:

The hype is not exaggerated at all. There are certain basic principles regarding privacy and data protection. One of them is to always prompt the user if you want to install something.

Verdict : Guilty

What should be the penalty for committing all those sins?

mossman

@Pesala said in Privacy Without Compromise: Proton VPN is Now Built Into Vivaldi:

@colebantam said in Privacy Without Compromise: Proton VPN is Now Built Into Vivaldi:

How many user actually use Mail, Calendar, Widgets and VPN?

Not many will use all of Vivaldi’s features. The promise of a built-in email client was the main reason I started using it, even before the Mail Client was ready.

Features that you do not need or are not ready to try yet can be disabled or left unused.

Vivaldi never was a bare-bones browser, and that is not their policy. I only wish that they would focus a bit more on fixing regressions, and improving existing features, before adding more new features. VPN had only seven votes; while others have hundreds of votes.

To be fair, I don't think the voting counts on request threads really reflect the average user's opinions. I remember when Opera made a proxy and called it "VPN" loads of people on here were whining about wanting the same.

Pesala

@mossman I prefer to follow the data, even if it is too small a sample size. It is still better than hearsay and opinions about what people allegedly want.

DrWhoFan99

Awesome add folks! I love the fact that Proton is tied directly in! Keep up the great work.

luetage

@Nekomajin So you clicked on it and nothing bad happened, because it’s not some adware, but an extension endorsed and in partnership with Vivaldi. The extension might be installed, but it isn’t actively connecting to anything before you sign up. You can safely remove it and no harm is done. Albeit I agree that there could be a confirmation dialog, wouldn’t hurt.

Pesala

@luetage It continues trying to connect every time I start the browser, unless I go to disable the extension.

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thejesse

Without compromise my backside. This is a very polarizing move and clear money-grab on Vivaldi's part. It's just advertising and Proton has a history of security flaws and very politically polarized leadership. Let people choose their own VPN extensions. This is silly and cheap. Congrats Vivaldi, after years of being a stand-up operation you've finally jumped the shark.

mossman

@thejesse said in Privacy Without Compromise: Proton VPN is Now Built Into Vivaldi:

Without compromise my backside. This is a very polarizing move and clear money-grab on Vivaldi's part. It's just advertising and Proton has a history of security flaws and very politically polarized leadership. Let people choose their own VPN extensions. This is silly and cheap. Congrats Vivaldi, after years of being a stand-up operation you've finally jumped the shark.

Don't want it? Don't click it - and delete the button if it bothers you. Can't really see the fuss myself...

Edit: aside from having to remove this and the "thanks" button on multiple machines every update. I presume that will stop after a while, though.

Nekomajin

@luetage
I get that. I think it should be clear that many of us does not complain about the feature itself but the missing confirmation prompt. You may think that it's not an issue, but it is. It's just bad design to install anything without asking the user first.

Nekomajin

@barbudo2005
Implement a confirmation prompt? There is no need for you to be such dramatic.

Nekomajin

@mossman said in Privacy Without Compromise: Proton VPN is Now Built Into Vivaldi:

Don't click it

That's the problem. The browser should not install a third-party extension after just a single click on a brand new button on the toolbar.

mossman

@Nekomajin said in Privacy Without Compromise: Proton VPN is Now Built Into Vivaldi:

@barbudo2005
Implement a confirmation prompt? There is no need for you to be such dramatic.

I think it was sarcasm about everyone else seeing a telenovella

barbudo2005

@Nekomajin

Said:

Implement a confirmation prompt?

I have said it before:

1.- It should have been better explained that clicking on the VPN button installed the extension. YES.

2.- A window should have appeared saying if you want to install the extension. YES

3.- In that same window, a message should have appeared saying that the VPN button can be removed just like any other button with the context menu. YES.

Said:

There is no need for you to be such dramatic.

That is exactly the point. The comments have been overly dramatic making a fuss of a mistake with no malicious intent, perhaps out of the haste of not having gone through a Snapshot.

And to top it all off without any further damage.

DerSchlingel

It's only a proxy like the one in Opera, isn't it?

Nekomajin

@mossman
Well, a company advertises itself for years with being privacy-oriented, then it releases an update out of nowhere with a marketing-heavy blog post without properly explaining how the feature exactly works. It turns out that it auto-installs a third-party extension without user confirmation. People express their opinion in the comments but none of the developers spend one minute to declare wether they intend to leave it as is or willing to fix the missing prompt. I think it's not what you call a telenovella.

DerSchlingel

It simply seems that even Vivaldi has to open some new streams of revenue, as people who develop it are actually want to make a living from it.
Pre-installed speed dials and contracts with search engines alone aren‘t doing the Job.
Also actively asking for donations as they‘ve begun to do lately wouldn‘t mean a sustainable business model. So they have to do some partnering, right? Every browser that‘s not held by a big corpo does. Mozilla does, Opera does. As long as they do it without breaking their own principles we shouldn‘t complain, as the browser comes without any cost.

Nekomajin

@DerSchlingel
The problem is that it breaks their own principles. Personally I can live with some advertisement in the browser but let me choose before they add anything from a third-party source.

DerSchlingel

@Nekomajin I think that’s a far stretched that this is a grand move against big tech. Sounds very pathetic in my ears. Vivaldi „partnering“ with Proton doesn’t change hardly anything. It’s only an advertisement in itself.
Maybe being king of customization and a virgin when it comes to privacy isn’t profitable in the long run. And Vivaldi users also seem to be a very aspiring folk anyway. Hard to feed them all.