How does Vivaldi protect the privacy of the users?
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@Varuna By not making unseen connections to companies that collect and sell your data; by not tracking your browsing habits or browser usage patterns; by not only not selling your data to anyone, but not collecting it in the first place; by not making partnerships with companies that collect and sell your data; by offering private search engines that do not collect your data; etc.
In other words, unlike other browsers, Vivaldi does not peek through your curtains and make money off of telling people what you are doing.
Advertising is how the internet you enjoy daily, and Vivaldi itself, are funded. It's not free, and you do not pay for it in any other way. At present, Vivaldi does not have an inbuilt ad-blocker. However, just as a physical newspaper you buy is funded by its advertisers (subscription costs don't even pay for the paper, the ink and the printing), the fact that there is an ad for a sale on shoes in it, does not collect data for the paper or the shoe seller. The shoe seller just buys space in hopes you will buy shoes. Ads in and of themselves are not a privacy issue. On line, however, ads you click on can collect your data.
So at this point, the main way Vivaldi protects your privacy is to not spy on you like other browsers, and not connect you to services that spy on you like other browsers.
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@Ayespy What about the trackers you find in websites?
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@TbGbe What do you mean by "For Starters", is a section for advanced users available?
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@Varuna said in How does Vivaldi protect the privacy of the users?:
@TbGbe What do you mean by "For Starters", is a section for advanced users available?
Yes, in the forum https://forum.vivaldi.net/category/8/security-privacy
Not everything is dependant on Vivaldi itself. -
@Gwen-Dragon said in How does Vivaldi protect the privacy of the users?:
@Varuna Vivaldi hat no filters/blocker included to protect user's privacy in websites.
But users can do this.
- Disable Third Party Cookies
- Install these filter extensions:
- uBlockOrigin
- Privacy Badger
Also disable Google antiphising (uBlock already does), Google DNS (use 9.9.9.9 or 1.1.1.1) and WebRTC in the privacy settings
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@Varuna I should make at least one thing clear: Vivaldi does not claim to protect user privacy. It respects user privacy. Biiiig difference. The browser does not protect you from third parties. No browser fully does. You need to take the initiative to do that at this point in Vivaldi development. What the browser does is not collect and exploit or collect and sell, your data.
Other browsers do. So, in those other browsers, even though you have installed 3rd party protection of every kind, the browser itself is still collecting and selling or exploiting your data. Vivaldi does. not. do. this.
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@Ayespy So even though Vivaldi respects user privacy, the websites user visits are capable of violating user privacy. I find ten, fifteen, trackers on some websites. In such a scenario going by the policy "The browser does not protect you from third parties. No browser fully does. You need to take the initiative to do that at this point in Vivaldi development. What the browser does is not collect and exploit or collect and sell, your data."
What does Vivaldi hope for user privacy?
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@Varuna said in How does Vivaldi protect the privacy of the users?:
... I find ten, fifteen, trackers on some websites...
What does Vivaldi hope for user privacy?I see the same thing regarding multiple trackers on many sites. What I believe Vivaldi 'hopes' for user privacy is that its users will take the time and effort to inform themselves about such things and take independent action (privacy extensions) if they so desire. I use a Ghostery extension and a robust hosts file (MVPS), among other things, to help guard my privacy... but I also recognize that a fair number of sites are "broken" by these guards and generate complaint pop-ups demanding they be turned off before proceeding. Putting the privacy guards directly into the browser would result in a lot of uninformed users complaining constantly about Vivaldi 'breaking' websites.
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@Blackbird said in How does Vivaldi protect the privacy of the users?:
Putting the privacy guards directly into the browser would result in a lot of uninformed users complaining constantly about Vivaldi 'breaking' websites.
That's the whole point.
Any post blog on security is welcome, but even the simplest blocker built-in without configuration (on/off) could break the user experience and will be pointless or even damaging for the browser itself.
And most tips to "how secure" Vivaldi are already told above: ublock origin is fine for most users ((which is less prone to break sites)). Scriptblocker would be better to kill most tracker, but need a bit more knowledge and more frequent whitelisting (which some users may not bear). Adblocker+track blocker is probably a good compromise between usability/security. -
@Varuna That the browser itself respects your privacy is arguably more important than whether it attempts (pointlessly) to protect you from websites, MANY of which will not function properly unless you allow them to invade your privacy. If your browser does not respect your privacy, then you can block cookies and trackers from every website, but your data is still being harvested and sold. In the US, it is even now legal for your ISP to do this. How are you going to block your ISP from knowing which website you are on?
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I think that if the browser itself respects the privacy and security of the user it is sufficient. From there, the responsibility rests with the user himself, depending on the services he uses, the extensions and the protection of the system.
It is completely meaningless if a browser is required to protect the security and privacy of the user, if he post details of his private life with photos onSpy...Facebook or other social networks. -
@Catweazle @Varuna With the uMatrix extension, it is obvious that a lot can be done in the code: You know the site and servers that are used: I am now on "Vivaldi.net" and I want to read what is on this site. The problem is that you use code that has been developed on other sites - here "Vivaldi.com" and well, "update.vivaldi.net" can be different to "forum.vivaldi.net". Captcha is provided by Cloudflare (I believe) to check if this is a human and not a robot, and uMatrix is an excellent tool to see these sites, and who has offered the tools used and who can spy on you. If you use a site, this site use a finite number of servers for code - involve others. Simply has outsourced the code. But every site should know who has been contracted to supply code. So for any WEB server, we can see all the sites, and allow third-party code, e.g. to allow embedding video and advertisement. It should be simple to let the site owner manage the content for their site, but advertisers want the ride to be simple (and free). So for ZDNet, you end up with an essay of third party not code providers but brokers of adverts and tracking tools. But this list is finite and should not be allowed to grow. With uMatrix you have a tool to analyze privacy and make much more complex blocking. A simple "scope" is then total blocking (/etc/hosts links the name to 127.0.0.1 lb or 192.168.x.y). The novelty is that in the extension or the browser can block according to the site - and make the block persistent or temporary. You can also block for groups of sites - "fb.com" and sub-domains, but very much more important is that you can enter that fb.com is the same as Facebook.com - the same rules. Just as for all the Vivaldi sites.
You can also get the geographical location of a site, and make a rule that says that all sites from the same building should be blocked. You can allow users here to share their lists, or "scopes" of these. The next is to control what to send to the various parts of the world since they are so eager to see what I do. Tell them "utter rubbish". -
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