WHAT THE POLICIES SAY

Opera is a Chromium-based browser from Opera Limited, a Cayman Islands-incorporated, Nasdaq-listed company headquartered in Oslo whose annual report discloses that Hong Kong Kunlun Tech Holding Limited, a subsidiary of Beijing-based Kunlun Tech, holds 68.0% of its voting power. The browser is ad-supported: Opera's privacy statement (updated 2026-07-16) describes usage statistics tied to a random installation ID, consent-based interest profiling built from categories of visited domains to enable advertising partners to target groups of users, and AI-chat prompts processed by OpenAI or Google, while stating that Opera does not sell users' personal data and does not share browsing history. The built-in free VPN covers browser traffic only, under a no-log policy Opera says is audited by Deloitte. Opera disclosed a 2016 breach of its sync service, then used by 1.7 million people.

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COLLECTION

Opera's Free VPN feature page states that the built-in free VPN secures internet traffic within the Opera browser only (its own comparison table lists Free VPN protection as 'Opera Browser only' versus VPN Pro's 'Entire device'), and that the service does not log activity or collect information, with a no-log policy Opera says is independently audited by Deloitte.

web.archive.org ↗

[2026-07-16] · COLLECTION

Opera's Privacy Statement, last updated 2026-07-16, states that when an Opera application is installed a random installation ID is generated and that Opera collects this identifier along with Machine ID, hardware specifications, operating system, environment configuration, and feature usage data, retains this usage data for up to three years, and lets users opt out of reporting extended statistics in the Privacy and Security settings.

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[2026-03-27] · OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

Opera Limited's SEC annual report on Form 20-F for fiscal year 2025, filed 2026-03-27, discloses that Opera Limited is a Cayman Islands exempted company with principal executive offices in Oslo, Norway, that it acquired Opera Norway AS and its browser business in November 2016, and that Hong Kong Kunlun Tech Holding Limited -- a subsidiary of Kunlun, a company incorporated in the PRC with its business address in Beijing -- beneficially owns 61,081,569 ordinary shares representing 68.0% of total voting power, with Mr. James Yahui Zhou identified as the controlling shareholder of Kunlun.

sec.gov ↗

[2026-07-16] · OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

Opera's Privacy Statement, last updated 2026-07-16, names Opera Norway AS as the data controller for the browsers, websites, and services it covers, and states that Opera applies the GDPR as its guidepost because it applies directly to Opera as a European company, with the document enumerating users' GDPR legal bases and rights.

web.archive.org ↗

[2026-03-27] · SHARING

Opera Limited's SEC annual report on Form 20-F for fiscal year 2025, filed 2026-03-27, states that the company monetizes its user base through two streams -- advertising revenue from targeted ad units, programmatic advertising, and promotional placements across its own platforms and third-party publisher networks, and query revenue from traffic referral arrangements with search engine providers, e-commerce platforms, and AI platforms -- and that Google, its largest partner, represents a material share of total revenues, with a substantial portion of query revenue generated through the Google relationship.

sec.gov ↗

[2026-07-16] · SHARING

Opera's Privacy Statement, last updated 2026-07-16, states that input typed into the Aria AI chat assistant is shared with OpenAI or Google to build answers, that interest-profile data is used to enable Opera's advertising partners to target ads to groups of users, and that default web search services may be provided by partners of CodeFuel Ltd. including bing.com; the same document states that Opera does not sell users' personal data to anyone and does not share users' personal interests or browsing history with anyone.

web.archive.org ↗

TRACK RECORD

Opera's security team page states that Opera maintains public and private Bug Bounty programs, accepts out-of-scope security reports under a published Vulnerability Policy, and publishes security advisories and a transparency report alongside per-product security FAQs.

security.opera.com ↗

[2016-08-26] · TRACK RECORD

In a security blog post dated 2016-08-26 titled 'Opera server breach incident', Opera disclosed that attackers gained access to the Opera sync system, that some sync users' passwords and account information such as login names may have been compromised, that all Opera sync account passwords were reset as a precaution, and that active sync users in the prior month numbered 1.7 million out of a total user base of 350 million.

blogs.opera.com ↗

TRACKING TECH

Opera's desktop security and privacy help documentation describes built-in countermeasures a user can enable: an ad blocker, a cryptocurrency-mining protection filter list that stops cryptojacking scripts, and a browser VPN that routes website connections through a VPN server so sites see the server's location and IP address rather than the user's.

help.opera.com ↗

[2026-07-16] · TRACKING TECH

The 'Personalized Ads & Profiling' section of Opera's Privacy Statement, last updated 2026-07-16, states that some Opera applications serve targeted ads from monetization partners based on IP address, hashed user ID, and general location, and that Opera builds an interest profile by recording whether the user has visited certain categories of websites (based on the primary domains of pages visited), Speed Dial clicks, device information, and categories of ads clicked; the section states processing is based on consent, that the data is retained up to one year, and that Opera does not log or store the user's entire browsing history for this purpose.

web.archive.org ↗

LAST REVIEWED 2026-08-04 · METHODOLOGY v1.7