Unsolved How to opt-out of sending the "unique user ID" from my browser installation to their servers?
-
According to the Vivaldi Browser Privacy Policy, Vivaldi collects a "unique user ID" assigned to each browser profile. This ID, along with some technical details (like installed browser version, user's CPU architecture, screen resolution and time since last message), is sent to Vivaldi's servers approximately every 24 hours. While Vivaldi refers to it as a "unique user ID", based on the description, it seems they may be actually sending a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID), although this is not explicitly stated.
-
@xew
Hi, they have to count their users use Vivaldi active, not the downloads of it for their partners.
The data get anonymized, the IP contains only the country but not your exact location for example.
There is a blog about how it is handled.EDIT:
https://vivaldi.com/blog/privacy/how-not-to-track-product-usage/
EDIT2: Typo -
@mib2berlin
Even if Vivaldi anonymizes the data and omits the last octet of the IP, the use of a persistent, unique identifier that is sent every 24 hours still constitutes as "personal data" under GDPR, because it enables the tracking of individual users over time. This kind of identifier alone, even without additional information, qualifies as an 'online identifier' under Article 4(1) and makes users indirectly identifiable, especially when combined with usage patterns or other metadata.If Vivaldi truly cares about privacy, they would have provided a way to opt-out of sending the "unique user ID", since counting users or analytics are not "strictly necessary" for the functionality of the browser. I personally don't mind sending anything else that doesn't qualify as an "online identifier".
-
@xew
To be honest I don't care, Vivaldi doesn't collect usage patterns or other metadata, what should they do with the IP pattern.
I have no idea whether the company, as a Norwegian company, has to comply with the GDPR, but that is beyond my knowledge. -
@xew “Not strictly necessary” is relative. Vivaldi needs the count to survive—and only if Vivaldi survives, will we be able to continue using the browser.
Please read https://vivaldi.com/blog/how-we-count-our-users/. Developers have worked on alternative ways of counting users, but in the end the results weren’t sufficiently accurate, or we would have switched long ago. If you can’t accept this reality, then don’t use the browser.
