Opera (NASDAQ:OPRA) expanded the security features for its new VPN Pro subscription service.
The VPN Pro service is a device-wide virtual private network that can be used without installing a secondary application. It’s available on Android, but it’s coming to Opera uses on Windows and Mac.
“VPN services are becoming an essential part of browsing, regardless of the device being used. Therefore, we decided to expand our offering so that users can connect up to six Android and desktop devices to their VPN subscription at once and stay safe online,” said Krystian Kolondra, EVP PC & gaming at Opera.
Opera is an internet-based tech company that’s blown up to include a base of a hundreds of millions of active monthly users. It’s hard to believe it, but Opera is a 25 year old company that started primarily with browser products and now includes a wide range of products and services for both PC and mobile browsers, including the newsreader Opera News, and applications dedicated to gaming, Web 3.0 and e-commerce.
And now the company is busy adding more security to its VPN. It makes sense because summer is a time meant for travelling, and people change their location regularly, which produces considerable cybersecurity risks, if you’re using public Wi-Fi. The Opera browser comes with its own browser-based VPN, which provides protection for laptops wherever they are, whether it’s a subway hotspot or a hotel Wi-Fi. The subscription service will include up to six devices connected to one account, and include a free month of unlimited secure VPN connection to subscribers for VPN Pro via laptop before August 31.
What a VPN does is create a private tunnel so hackers, the government and even your ISP can’t see what you’re doing online. A VPN can also protect you from other types of private threats, as your online activity can be tracked any time you visit a website or open an online application—the right VPN can block that data gathering.
Edward Snowden highlighted the need for a VPN back in 2013 when he revealed that Verizon had been selling users’ internet and phone data to the NSA. It seems like we learn a new way that companies and governments are surveiling us and collecting our data every month. Yes. Several laws were passed following the Snowden leaks in an attempt to curtail government surveillance, but without an oversight committee or other body to ensure that government has been keeping their promises, we have no way of knowing.
In fact—it’s been proven they don’t as recently Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police were discovered routinely using powerful spyware to surveil citizens and regulators have proven to be either asleep at the wheel or looking the other way in terms of regulation.
Once switched on, all the data sent to the internet is encrypted and sent to one of the thousands of Opera VPN servers across the world. Th user is protected while using unencrypted Wi-Fi at airports, restaurants and city centres, but also makes it harder for advertisers to follow.
