Privacy is not just a personal matter
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@NetGain said in Privacy is not just a personal matter:
@terere: With the number of free browsers available, I'm not convinced at all that users would find it "just cool" to have a paid model. Any willing to pay would most likely be be just a small minority.
I only know paid browsers for MacOS (OmniWeb, Fake, iCab), all others are Freeware or OSS.
I only imagine the acceptance of a paid browser by companies for having specific functions, but not for a normal user. -
Hey @jon
I really enjoy Vivaldi and the way you and the team takes privacy seriously. However I ask myself why can't you create a function so Vivaldi itself does not phone home every 24 hours as you state in your privacy policy?
It's kind of hard to preach privacy and say that all the companies are bad, but on the other hand you also collect data and it's not even possible to opt-out.
I would love to know if you are planning such a function to be available in the near future.
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@Gixxa said in Privacy is not just a personal matter:
Hey @jon
I really enjoy Vivaldi and the way you and the team takes privacy seriously. However I ask myself why can't you create a function so Vivaldi itself does not phone home every 24 hours as you state in your privacy policy?
It's kind of hard to preach privacy and say that all the companies are bad, but on the other hand you also collect data and it's not even possible to opt-out.
I would love to know if you are planning such a function to be available in the near future.
Collecting how many people use Vivaldi in which country, is not violating private data, it is anonymous statistics.
Vivaldi do nothing else, less than other browers
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@Gwen-Dragon
As I said I would welcome a option to opt-out even better let it be an opt-in, that could be asked for in the initial setup after starting the first time. If someone wants to share the info with Vivaldi great, if not let them decline it.
Well it's a bit more that just country and how many people use it. As it says in the privacy policy it's:
- (user) ID
- [bowser] version
- cpu architecture
- screen resolution
- time since last message
- (anonymized) ip
And yes technically it's not private data (except the ip and maybe the user id as it is unique) but it still has a funny taste when you preach water but drink wine at the end of the day i.e. not let the users decide if they want to share the information with Vivaldi.
I get why Vivaldi wants the stats as it's a good metric for Vivaldi and partners. Just let people decide if they want to be part of the stats.
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@Gixxa Hiding from Vivaldi how many installs are in use, cuts into Vivaldi's income and makes it harder for the company to survive - as it is still operating at a loss. There is no way for Vivaldi to charge its advertising partners adequate amounts for placement if the usage stats are artificially low.
Also, if Vivaldi gets no feedback on what platforms it's running on, devs don't know what to build for.
Again, the data collected is completely anonymous and contains nothing concerning usage patterns, sites visited, networks used, or anything that is capable of touching your privacy. Vivaldi does not know who you are, where you are, or what you are doing. The info is no more informative than colored dots on a lo-res map of the globe. What Vivaldi can tell is, "we have a lot of users on newer equipment in Japan. Most of them use Windows."
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@Gixxa said in Privacy is not just a personal matter:
@Gwen-Dragon
As I said I would welcome a option to opt-out even better let it be an opt-in, that could be asked for in the initial setup after starting the first time. If someone wants to share the info with Vivaldi great, if not let them decline it.
Well it's a bit more that just country and how many people use it. As it says in the privacy policy it's:
- (user) ID
- [bowser] version
- cpu architecture
- screen resolution
- time since last message
- (anonymized) ip
And yes technically it's not private data (except the ip and maybe the user id as it is unique) but it still has a funny taste when you preach water but drink wine at the end of the day i.e. not let the users decide if they want to share the information with Vivaldi.
I get why Vivaldi wants the stats as it's a good metric for Vivaldi and partners. Just let people decide if they want to be part of the stats.
Vivaldi store the last numbers of the IP that especifics only the country.
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@bilotola Vivaldi cannot make income and survive if it does not sell advertising and search placement space.
It cannot sell this access to eyeballs if it does not quantify its usership. The ONLY way to accurately quantify usership is by the verifiable number of unique IDs of the browser in use.
Your proposal is that Vivaldi be unable to quantify its usership = it cannot sell advertising placement = it will have to shut its doors.
Is that your aim?
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Companies before used to focus on customer satisfaction or quality of service. Now all they care about is money.
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@MrGrimm said in Privacy is not just a personal matter:
i've never seen a paid version of opera
Opera was a paid software up to version 5.0. Then they introduced in-browser ads for those who didn't want to pay for it. The ads were eventually removed in version 8.5 (more history). I personally started using Opera shortly before they removed the ads.
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There are still browsers that are not free, for example
Zetakey Browser - US$ 149 per device -
@jonmc
I am a previous user of Opera since Version 2 (!), and still a user though less frequently, since I have been leaning toward Vivaldi more and more in recent months as refinements and improvements have been implemented. I noted with interest that Opera had been purchased by a Chinese company some time ago. I have noticed your comments about leaving Opera due to policy and philosophical changes and also references concerning the use of data that may also impact security and privacy.
Can you comment specifically and objectively on what these concerns are, or refer us to a previous essay or some article for the benefit of those wishing to understand them? I am not implying that Opera be disparaged in any way - just that an objective and/or comparative review of any concerns that people should be interested in.
Thanks,
Robert -
I was just listening to a podcast (The Vergecast, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism with Shoshana Zuboff, 26/03/2019) where the issues of surveillance capitalism are discussed. I would recommend it for anyone who likes to keep on top of these kind of issues.
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Search engine manipulation, censorship and why you should switch
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@Pesala said in Privacy is not just a personal matter:
Search engine manipulation, censorship and why you should switch
"The Hated One" has some really good videos about privacy, good info
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Really thanks for that. Even the post is from last year, the topic is more current then ever.. Thanks for the great links in the post. Currently i am doing some privacy-, Google- and corporate surveillance research work. It is always a pleasure going through the articles in the Vivaldi blog section but as well the community pages of VIVALDI are great sources of valuable information..
Probably i will move my BLOG to VIVALDI. Not yet 100% used to it as it in some cases a very weird (intuitive navigation goes differently) and a "stubborn" blog platform. But I like the community and the people here, an alternative and in a way a bit different platform...Please have a look here:
NETWORK OF CONTROL (2016), A Report on Corporate Surveillance, Digital Tracking, Big Data & Privacy
https://crackedlabs.org/en/networksofcontrol -
In Taiwan police knocked on the door of a virus carrier because he phone's battery had gone dead. They thought he might be evading tracking.
How much data are you willing to share to help combat the spread of Covid-19?
A Scottish man who tested positive for the virus was told in no uncertain terms to go home or face jail time.
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@Pesala said in Privacy is not just a personal matter:
How much data are you willing to share to help combat the spread of Covid-19?
Problem is: That data's not just going to be used to combat the spread of Covid-19!