Advice Request Vivaldi caught incorporating spyware connectivity in the background.

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Paul.R

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Vivaldi caught incorporating spyware connectivity in the background. But it's okay, because it's totally not spyware. We promise.

vivaldi-windows.jpg

Auto updates are disabled in settings. I caught Vivaldi now connecting to https://update.vivaldi.com/stats/piwik.php

Pwiki is a third party spyware company, incorporated directly into the browser despite our settings with no opt out. Who knows how long this is been going on--I stupidly allow Vivaldi access through my firewall because it's a goddamn web browser and I shouldn't need to analyze every goddamn connection it makes.

I am so sick of seeing this bullshit from this company. They claim to respect users yet I'm constantly finding them doing the exact opposite. They still haven't done anything about the Google spyware in the Chromium base. Vivaldi continues to phone home to Google servers no matter what you do with the settings. Now they're sneaking their own scummy spyware into it.


Forum Vivaldi post:
Return of Vivaldi spyware
 

Sunshine-boy

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ForgottenSeer 58943

Until there is a PAID browser I would expect all of them have some level of logging/telemetry/spying by default.

In the meantime, I am somewhat convinced that - believe it or not - Chrome is the best when you add some command line switches to disable this or that. It seems like every browser, including ones that claim to be privacy oriented have something going on with their back end. The commodity here is us, and our privacy until there is a paid or subscription based, well developed, secured browser in the world.

In the meantime, approach all of them with caution.
 

mlnevese

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Until there is a PAID browser I would expect all of them have some level of logging/telemetry/spying by default.

In the meantime, I am somewhat convinced that - believe it or not - Chrome is the best when you add some command line switches to disable this or that. It seems like every browser, including ones that claim to be privacy oriented have something going on with their back end. The commodity here is us, and our privacy until there is a paid or subscription based, well developed, secured browser in the world.

In the meantime, approach all of them with caution.

Unfortunately we will see no paid browsers... The industry still remembers what happened to Netscape when it tried. Until the culture that everything good must be free disappears from the Internet the only way for companies to sustain themselves will be selling data.
 

RejZoR

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What makes you think analytics have anything to do with updating controls? Just because you disabled updating, that doesn't mean it will also disable analytics, unless that's what Vivaldi explicitly states. I don't see Piwik as an "spyware" company as you allege it to be. It's data analytics provider which developers can choose to use as 3rd party component, instead of writing their own, they simply utilize Piwiki's service. Apart from potential misbehaving of analytics optin/optout (again, I'm not using Vivaldi so I don't know how their browser works exactly) I don't see anything bad here.
 
5

509322

Until there is a PAID browser I would expect all of them have some level of logging/telemetry/spying by default.

Even with a PAID browser people are going to run into the issue stated by the Brave browser developer flamsmark. He basically states "we make and ship the browser configured in such a way that makes sense for the vast majority of people" which includes whatever connections that t33rex reported in the tcp dumps. And therein lies the rub for the ultra-privacy and ultra-security geeks. Those two classes want the product "manufactured" for the ultra-private & secure state - and no publishers are willing to do that - not even if people are willing to pay for it because only a few customers are willing to pay for it. Until people change, nothing is going to change, and people just aren't going to change, so give it up.
 
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ForgottenSeer 58943

Unfortunately we will see no paid browsers... The industry still remembers what happened to Netscape when it tried. Until the culture that everything good must be free disappears from the Internet the only way for companies to sustain themselves will be selling data.

I don't like the free model for anything but I think that's rare today. I like paywalls for most things. Also having a paywall does activate additional consumer protections which I like to have blanketed over me. 'Free' causes me to cast a suspicious look over anything, I simply don't trust free because I know the commodity being exchanged is usually my privacy and security. It's like those idiots that go door to door offering a free roll of paper towel but if you take the free paper towel they'll stick their foot in the door and not leave you alone for 30 minutes trying to sell you some useless overpriced crap you don't need.

Until the culture of 'free' changes then we are doomed with more and more spying and loss of security.
 

Paul.R

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May 16, 2013
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In my personal opinion if he fkup his browser, he lose all his trust plus he can say goodbye to his work and I don't think we want to do that.

From reddit post he his very helpful plus you can always see his work on github, where he get help from firefox developers or contributors.

//Correct me if I'm wrong.
 

kev216

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Aug 6, 2014
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Not really spyware. Don't blow this up when not necessary. It is not more than calling home to a vivaldi domain on their own servers in iceland. Vivaldi just uses this sofware on their servers to collect info. The only thing they collect are your country and your os version. That's all. They use these two things to get an idea of the global userbase and to give you the right version when updating. Nothing more.
You can disable the google callback in settings/privacy and uncheck the two google safebrowsing checkboxes. This is inherited from chromium and enabled by default, but simply turn it off if you don't want it.
Privacy is important for vivaldi. For example they can't even see your synced stuff without your own encryption key.
 

Chimaira

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Jan 5, 2018
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The only problem with this forum is that with all the dedication to security also comes with hefty doses of paranoia.

Sometimes a place like this can paradoxically warn you about things that aren't really dangerous.

You must be able to discern and not fall into the collective rabble-rousing.

Like some smart person once said, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

"If a person is familiar with a certain, single subject, or has with them a certain, single instrument, they may have a confirmation bias to believe that it is the answer to/involved in everything."
 

gin

Level 7
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Jan 16, 2014
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The only problem with this forum is that with all the dedication to security also comes with hefty doses of paranoia.

Sometimes a place like this can paradoxically warn you about things that aren't really dangerous.

You must be able to discern and not fall into the collective rabble-rousing.

Like some smart person once said, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

"If a person is familiar with a certain, single subject, or has with them a certain, single instrument, they may have a confirmation bias to believe that it is the answer to/involved in everything."


TRUE
 
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