Getting a VPN is one of the most direct ways to gain some privacy while you browse, and it also lets you bypass the absurd geographic restrictions many websites enforce. A solid VPN usually requires a small monthly investment, but the people at Opera decided to build a VPN directly into their browser, based on the technology from SurfEasy, a company they acquired a little over a year ago.
Why a VPN?
Privacy, censorship, and geographic blocks are three valid reasons to sign up for a VPN. I say 'sign up' because commercial options tend to offer a better experience over the long haul, but the VPN itself isn't a magic fix either. You have to adjust your browsing habits to get the most out of it, which means being a bit careful about the traffic you generate. Even with these caveats, demand for a free VPN is high. The feeling is that this technology should already be an integral part of our daily browsing, and that's where Opera is headed with a new free and unlimited VPN service included in the latest developer build of its browser.
How to activate it
Activating the VPN is very simple: just put a checkmark in the appropriate box in the browser's privacy section. When your connections to different sites go through the VPN, you'll see a small icon next to the URL. Click it to access the three available server options (United States, Canada, and Germany), along with detailed information about the bandwidth you've used. Opera's VPN technology comes from its acquisition of SurfEasy, confirmed in March of last year. In our testing, the VPN handled sites like Hulu quite well, but it fell short when we tried to load Pandora (your mileage may vary).
The caveats
Now, it's worth highlighting a few points that could be considered asterisks in the record of this new VPN. First, SurfEasy is based in Canada, and its privacy policy (despite what it claims) allows it to create temporary logs. Second, the VPN only covers web traffic inside the browser, so anything that goes on outside that traffic remains exposed. Third, the developer version of Opera is leaking WebRTC requests, which can expose your real IP address even while you're using a VPN. This isn't exclusive to Opera; it also affects other Chromium-based browsers, though there are extensions that can plug that hole. Finally, remember that this build of Opera has an alpha-level profile. Don't do anything critical with it.
