Vivaldi 2.7 and the .vivaldi_reporting_data file

[JohnnyP]

This is not acceptable, the .vivaldi_reporting_data file should not be in the profile root folder (%UserProfile%).
The user profile root folder is for files and folders to be seen and managed by it's respective user!

A file like .vivaldi_reporting_data which is to be used on behind the scenes operation belongs in the %UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming or %UserProfile%\AppData\Local folders.

[kahukura]

Please file a bug report so Devs can have a look. Thank you!

[LonM]

@JohnnyP I have confirmed this and a bug report is now in the tracker.

[hunster5]

It looks like a tracking file to monitor the user. I'm not amused. How can i disable this?

[kahukura]

@hunster5 Please see "How we count users" which might be related to that file.

[Pathduck]

Even if it's related to user counting, which is fair enough, and I don't mind at all - they should have the common decency to clean up after themselves

[kahukura]

Depends on where you put the logic. Leave locally to let the user see what you are doing or as you suggest send data to the host with little to no traces at all. The latter would be more suspicious, don't you think?

[Pathduck]

@kahukura There's a place for application-related data files, and that's in AppData and the application data folder. It's not in the user profile folder or anywhere else on the file system.

This is not about "transparency". There's hundreds of data files in the Vivaldi data folder already, are you going to go through all of those as well, to find out what is collected?

This is about not cleaning up the mess left behind by your code.

[kahukura]

@Pathduck I did not code this procedure. As we are having a bug report now, let's see what the Devs will decide and do.

[Pathduck]

@kahukura I didn't mean to say you wrote it - I used "your" in a more general sense. But I see now that it could be misunderstood, sorry for that

Yeah, let's wait until we see what the devs do. Until then I will just keep deleting the file myself

[DarkUltra]

I did this

attrib +h +s .vivaldi_reporting_data

and now it is hopefully hidden forever

update:
its been a week and the file is still hidden, yay

[JohnnyP]

@DarkUltra That just hides the file. The file is still where it is not supposed to be!
And for me, that creates an additional problem because it's include on the backup of my personal folder.

Anyway, I'm no longer using vivaldi! Have switched to Firefox.

[foulke]

Hi. So, how has this become "Resolved"? It's still happening in v2.9. Am I missing something? Thanks.

[foulke]

OK. I was thinking it just happened to me. Thanks for the reply.

BTW, what are the repercussions of simply deleting the file? Is it recreated every time Vivaldi opens?

[LonM]

@foulke Yes, it will be recreated. But that will impact vivaldi's ability to count users easily.

[Pathduck]

@LonM If you don't mind, could you look up the status of the report you made?

I still think this file should be written to the Vivaldi profile and not the user's home.

[LonM]

@Pathduck No progress on it. The devs have decided to modify it so it includes a message describing the purpose of the file, but they haven't yet moved it to a better location.

[foulke]

It includes a message? Where exactly? I've read the file and it's quite innocent. It's just aesthetically fugly.

[LonM]

@foulke oops... I said too much

Maybe that change never made it to a public build yet.

[Pathduck]

@foulke It contains the following message:

"description":"This file contains data used for counting users. If you are worried about privacy implications, please see https://help.vivaldi.com/article/how-we-count-our-users/"

I'm on the latest snapshot, maybe it's different on Stable.