Interview: Founder of web browser Opera says worried about online privacy
09/11/2017 13:49
By Axel Bugge
LISBON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - People should worry about online
data collection by technology companies because it gives them
unparalleled insight into users lives, the creator of one of the
biggest web browsers, Opera, said on Thursday.
Jon von Tetzchner said the situation was already comparable
to George Orwell's dystopian novel '1984', since "everyone is
being followed and everyone's information is being collected".
Lack of awareness of the amount of data harvested is "a
perfect storm of a really bad idea," he told Reuters at the Web
Summit conference in Lisbon.
Von Tetzchner created Opera OPERA.OL in 1996 and is now
promoting his new browser, Vivaldi, that he says better
addresses privacy concerns.
Opera gained 350 million users and prominence in the mobile
market but he left it in 2011 because he disagreed with the
browser's sale to a Chinese consortium.
He has since launched Vivaldi, which includes functions he
says bigger browsers lack. Vivaldi.net does not track searches
and is based on an online community of users who recommend
features, he said.
It now has about a million users but von Tetzchner said it
had an "exponential growth rate" and the company will soon
launch a mobile browser.
Google GOOGL.O dominates the online advertisement market
and it closed Vivaldi's advertising account. Google partnered
Opera before launching the Chrome browser in 2008.
"I really wish these companies would behave," von Tetzchner
said, adding that a free internet was "more important in the
bigger picture."
He said he was increasingly concerned about data collection
and tracking by tech giants like Google and Facebook.
Last year's U.S. election showed that users can be targeted
with differentiated adverts amid evidence that Russia may have
manipulated the vote with political adverts on Facebook. Von
Tetzchner said the next step could be a broader propaganda war.
(Reporting By Axel Bugge; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Matthew
Mpoke Bigg)
((axel.bugge@thomsonreuters.com; +351-213-509-201; Reuters
Messaging: axel.bugge.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: PORTUGAL WEBSUMMIT/PRIVACY