The Internet can be a very scary place, especially when you do not have all of the necessary safeguards in place: a strong password, the right firewall and settings, proper knowledge of which website that one ought to avoid, education on spam mails and clickbaits that could lead to malware being installed unwittingly on your machine, the works. Not only that, having a VPN (Virtual Private Network) installed on your computer or mobile device is also a good idea as it increases the level of security, but most of the time, one would have to purchase the service or app. Opera intends to make it free for the masses in its latest move, being the first major desktop browser in the market that comes with a free built-in VPN service.
In other words, if you are a security-conscious Web surfer, you can now take advantage of Opera's free and unlimited VPN that comes into action through the Opera desktop browser. Using the Opera VPN is a snap -- all that you need to do is to download the Opera browser for your desktop.
Upon installation, navigate to Settings (Preferences on Mac) > Privacy & Security > toggle on free VPN. Following that, there will be an icon that carries the "VPN" label appearing to the left of the address field. Clicking on that will activate the private network, where you can then select the prefered location.
This particular VPN will create a secure connection to the US, Canada, Germany, Singapore, or the Netherlands, and it ensures that one's online privacy and security will be retained without having to sacrifice on gaining easy access to selected content. If you are not too sure on where you would want to route your online operations, all that you need to do is to turn on automatic location mode, and then the Opera desktop browser will get the job done as it picks the optimal server. The Opera browser's choice would be dependent on factors such as network speed, latency, location, and capacity.
The strategy in making the Opera browser VPN free and easy to use is to ensure that it ends up as an essential and hopefully, indispensable tool. It will be powered by Opera subsidiary SurfEasy, and the new browser feature makes use of a secure 256-bit AES encrypted connection, where it will not stash any kind of information concerning a user's browsing history.
If you do not have any kind of VPN on your home computer, notebook or mobile device, perhaps now is the right time to consider getting one.
You do know that Opera has its mobile VPN app available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, right? It would be interesting to see how the entire suite of Opera VPN app and desktop browser work together in harmony in contrast with other paid offerings that are in the market. Surely some bit of market share among its rivals will be eroded, but generally you get what you pay for. Hence, paid VPN apps will most probably still retain its faithful following in terms of features and support.
