The Dark Truth Behind Opera GX Browser: Privacy Issues and Shady Practices Exposed

0:00 Intro

The video discusses the popularity of Opera GX browser among YouTubers and thanks the sponsor for supporting the content. It introduces the idea of changing browsers to Opera GX.

0:26 Opera's History

The video discusses the history of the Opera web browser, which was once a popular alternative to Internet Explorer and Firefox but lost market share after Google Chrome's release. Despite having only 2.5% of the browser market share, Opera still has over 350 million monthly active users. To stay afloat, Opera has turned to sponsoring large YouTubers and selling user data to make money. The video also emphasizes the importance of YouTubers doing research before promoting a company to their audience.

2:07 Privacy issues

The video reveals the privacy issues associated with the Opera web browser. After being acquired by a Chinese company in 2016, Opera is now required to share all data it collects with the Chinese Communist Party. The browser's geolocation requests can obtain detailed personal information, and its VPN service may not provide proper encryption, potentially logging and sending user data to the company's headquarters. Additionally, the closed-source nature of the browser makes it impossible to verify the presence of any malicious code. The video emphasizes the importance of transparency and questions the credibility of Opera's claims regarding privacy, especially in comparison to other open-source browsers like Brave and LibreWolf.

4:22 Testing the browser

The video exposes the dark truth behind the Opera browser, highlighting its privacy issues and overall performance. The speaker shares their experience using the browser, noting that most of its features turned out to be gimmicks rather than useful. They specifically mention Opera's CPU and RAM limiter feature, which they tested on both Windows and Mac operating systems, and found it to be ineffective. In fact, the Brave browser ended up using significantly less RAM on the Mac compared to Opera.

5:21 Conclusion

The conclusion of the video discusses the shady business practices of Opera and its privacy issues. The creator criticizes large YouTubers for promoting potentially harmful software and acknowledges the influence of money on such decisions. While the title may have been clickbait, the creator recommends using the browser Brave instead. They also mention another YouTube video exposing a different sponsor scam. The video ends with a call to like, subscribe, and join the creator's Discord server.