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Stop using Opera Browser and Opera GX (www.spacebar.news)

submitted 10 months ago by corbin@infosec.pub to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world 308 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (40 children)

Holy shit.

I thought this was just going to be a matter of poor security implementation or crappy feature sets.

Turns out they converted the company into a loan shark operation owned by Chinese ad companies

when the Opera browser continued losing users (due to competition from Google and Apple), the company shifted gears to building mobile apps that provided predatory short-term loans. The interest rates on those loans ranged from 365-876% per year, and loan terms from 7-29 days.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 155 points 10 months ago (33 children)

This behavior is just beyond batshit. Before anyone decides tl;dr, the article is well worth a read.

I had a hunch that Opera was circling the drain when I started seeing them sponsor Youtubers. A general rule of thumb is that no company that has anything worth a shit devolves to sponsoring Youtube videos. I had no idea about the predatory loans thing, or the crypto scam chasing thing, or the ripping off ChatGPT thing...

Back here in reality, there is no reason anyone should be using any other browser than Firefox. There is one organization left in this arena still devoted to protecting privacy, maintaining open standards, and a fair and open web for all. And it ain't Google, it ain't Microsoft, and it ain't Opera.

[+] Engywuck@lemm.ee -13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

there is no reason anyone should be using any other browser than Firefox.

Yeah. And everybody should use the same brand of shoes, drive the same model of car, buy at the same store, eat the same food...

God forbids people having different tastes, opinions and needs.

There is one organization left in this arena still devoted to protecting privacy, maintaining open standards, and a fair and open web for all. And it ain’t Google, it ain’t Microsoft, and it ain’t Opera.

Yeah, and it's not Mozilla either.

[–] fernandofig@reddthat.com 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, and it's not Mozilla either.

Which one do you think it is, then? Genuinely curious here. I don't disagree with on most of what you said - I find the simping for Mozilla (and sneering towards chromium) here in Lemmy rather annoying. Mozilla and its browser both have shortcomings as well, and choosing a web browser these days is, as most things in life, choosing the lesser of evils vs. one's own needs.

[–] Engywuck@lemm.ee -2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Which one do you think it is, then? Genuinely curious here.

I simply don't assume that an org/com actually exist which is concerned users' privacy. Mozilla just follows the money, as any other corp.

Protecting my privacy is a task I prefer to delegate to mybrain(.org).

[–] fernandofig@reddthat.com 2 points 10 months ago

Good. We think alike 👍

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