Opera's "LINK" feature security opinions

FIRST OFF SORRY. I EDITED THIS POST. I MEANT OPERA LINK, NOT OPERA UNITE!!!!!

Moderator's Note:

I have changed the main title to match instronics' wishes. (nihil)

Hello everyone.

Not sure where to post it, so move it if its in the wrong section. My question is more about policies and privacy concerning the Opera Link feature.

I need a solution to share my browser's 'everything' on multiple machines. Opera LINK seems to do exactly that, but for the people here on AO that know me, you know that i am extremely paranoid most of the time. My main concern is PRIVACY.

For example, i have many bookmarks, that i really DON'T want other people seeing. So my questions are:

1 - How secure is my data if i choose to use opera LINK (data as in bookmarks, history, saved passwords)?

2 - Does opera filter out, or 'spy' or look at my settings/bookmarks/history etc....?

3 - (again for the people that know me) Should "I" trust it and use it without breaking my head of these thoughts?

4 - From a security point of view..... does anyone else use and 'TRUST" this feature?

5 - Any alternative solutions (without having to carry stuff with me on USB sticks, etc...)?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers.

If you use browser sync functions, the synced data is usually stored on their servers. The server could be compromised and your login, or potentially sync data could be stolen.

I generally use Hamachi with a secure password. The Hamachi servers only establish the handshake and have no access to the encrypted data stream. If you want to be doubly sure that the data is inaccessible, you might want to encrypt a data folder with TrueCrypt, access it through Hamachi and decrypt at the other end. In your case, you can keep the user profile data folder shared over Hamachi and have the remote browser use that profile instead of the local profile. Not sure how it works in Opera but it should work in Firefox. I have a friend who does this profile sharing with Dropbox and Firefox (which would of course be less secure than the above mentioned option).

Thank you for your input cyberbob.

However i have heard nothing good of hamachi in the past, and i have a personal grudge against firefox, my only browsers that i use are lynx and opera..... and in general i think thanks to my paranoia i will not use any forms of what my primary question was. I will export my bookmarks to html and let them reside on a secure shell. If i need them, i will ssh to the server and just read it or download it. (im sure i can come up with a shell script that will automatically move a copy of them (maybe even including settings) to a shell that is accessible from the outside for my needs every few hours).

Cheers anyways :)

Just wondering what issues you had heard of with using Hamachi.

I think you'll be fine. Opera is probably the best cross platform browser out right now. I use it 99.999% of the time. It's installed on my BSD boxes, all my Linux boxes, and my Windows machine. I use it every day, and I've had 0 problems.

Im sorry guys, please reread my initial post. I meant OPERA LINK, and NOT OPERA UNITE.

And my main concern was not opera's safety/security, as in their technological security. I meant about their policies.... as in what they do with the data and info. More of a privacy concern here, not a security concern.

Cheers.

//addon @ cyberbob: Will get back to you about the hamachi issue ;)

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Originally Posted by instronics

Im sorry guys, please reread my initial post. I meant OPERA LINK, and NOT OPERA UNITE.

And my main concern was not opera's safety/security, as in their technological security. I meant about their policies.... as in what they do with the data and info. More of a privacy concern here, not a security concern.

Cheers.

//addon @ cyberbob: Will get back to you about the hamachi issue ;)

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Ahh, OK, that makes a difference heh. Ummm, I'm no expert on this, because I, like 99.999% of the World, don't read EULA stuff ever. I mean I've tried, but generally it ends up being a sleeping pill in text form.

I've literally heard of people who won money because they read the EULA of some product or something.... Like, the company had put in there somewhere that if you see this, contact us here, and we'll send you money, just to find out of anyone read it lol.

Anyway, from what I can personally tell you, with my limited understanding, is that Opera is a decent company. They don't seem to be out to palm you off to spammers and other miscreants, and they do seem to be fairly ethical when it comes to things like that.

I personally, as I pointed out, use Opera almost exclusively, and I like it a lot. I couldn't stand Firefox anymore, and even when I did use it, it wasn't very often. I did use Firefox for a while back when it wasn't so bloated it was like a PMSing Woman.

And I think that's a great analogy of Firefox lol, a PMSing Woman... It's Bloated, it's unstable, and it just blows up on you when you ask it something it doesn't like lol.

I also use Opera as an Email client too. I rarely do that because most of the Browser and Email Client packages, are bloated, or don't work to well, but I haven't had ANY problems with Opera other than the occasional Server issues from my ISP, which is hardly Opera's fault.

I'd say you're fine. I don't think anyone else here would really disagree, or find anything about Opera abusing information.

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Originally Posted by gore

I've literally heard of people who won money because they read the EULA of some product or something.... Like, the company had put in there somewhere that if you see this, contact us here, and we'll send you money, just to find out of anyone read it lol.

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You hear about the one EULA that made users sign away their souls?
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/...wn-your-soul/1

it is kind of funny. You can get into a lot of trouble with not reading EULA, though I do agree with you they are a snore-fest :( Blizzards EULA and TOS pretty much make you agree to give them complete access to your computer while you are connected to their server, but that is for security purposes >.<

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Originally Posted by gore

I'd say you're fine. I don't think anyone else here would really disagree, or find anything about Opera abusing information.

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cough cough.. :p

also here's a slashdot article about the EULA prize.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/23/2315211

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"When Doug Heckman was installing a PC Pitstop program, he actually read the EULA. In it, he found a clause stating that he could get financial compensation if he e-mailed PC Pitstop. The result: a $1,000 check, and proof that people don't read EULAs (3,000 people before him didn't notice it). The goal of this was to prove that one should read all EULAs, so that one can see if an app is spyware if it is buried in the EULA."

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It pays to Read License Agreements

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OK, let's be honest. You didn't really read the EULA. How do I know? Because hardly anyone does. To prove that point, PC Pitstop included a clause in one of its own EULAs that promised anyone who read it, a "consideration" including money if they sent a note to an email address listed in the EULA. After four months and more than 3,000 downloads, one person finally wrote in. That person, by the way, got a check for $1,000 proving, at least for one person, that it really does pay to read EULAs.

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Originally Posted by SnugglesTheBear

You hear about the one EULA that made users sign away their souls?
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/...wn-your-soul/1

it is kind of funny. You can get into a lot of trouble with not reading EULA, though I do agree with you they are a snore-fest :( Blizzards EULA and TOS pretty much make you agree to give them complete access to your computer while you are connected to their server, but that is for security purposes >.<

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Blizzard having access doesn't seem so bad compared to playing their shitty games.

And shut up Coffee Cup. Just because you like Firefox doesn't mean Opera is bad anymore than me liking Opera automatically makes the Firefox EULA bad.

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Originally Posted by gore

Blizzard having access doesn't seem so bad compared to playing their shitty games.

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heh....... I like starcraft though

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Originally Posted by gore

And shut up Coffee Cup. Just because you like Firefox doesn't mean Opera is bad anymore than me liking Opera automatically makes the Firefox EULA bad.

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Who is Coffee Cup? Me or Hybrid?
If me
what do you mean by Coffee Cup? Also, I don't recall stating Firefox is better
than opera. EXPLAIN!.... please?
elif Hybrid
@Hybrid why does he call you Coffee Cup?
else
seg fault =P

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Originally Posted by SnugglesTheBear

heh....... I like starcraft though

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I just got done playing Dungeoncrawl. From what I read, the people who made WoW not only loved it a lot, they used it as their main idea as to how WoW would work. There's none of that crap with leveling though, and there isn't a GUI, it's a text only game, and a lot like Net Hack.

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Who is Coffee Cup? Me or Hybrid?

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Hybrid. I named him that a long time ago. He was known as teabags spelled all funny, and since calling someone teabags is already funny, I named him Coffee Cup.

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If me
what do you mean by Coffee Cup?

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I didn't ;)

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Also, I don't recall stating Firefox is better
than opera. EXPLAIN!.... please?

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You didn't.

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@Hybrid why does he call you Coffee Cup?
else

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Because it's funny. As stated above, he was known as teabags, and since that's already funny, I made a funny nick name for him. It was a long time ago.

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seg fault =P

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kill -HUP teddy_bear_guy_aka_fabric_softener; renice -20; rm -rf /usr/home/* && vim /etc/inittab (add init 6 as default run level)

buahahahahaha.

I could probably make a funnier nick name for you other than teddy bear and fabric softener. I'm sure some simple word play would make Fabric Softener and Software mend together.

Apparently, (me and Hybrid and !(me and Hybrid)) != 0 huh gore? ;)

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Originally Posted by gore

kill -HUP teddy_bear_guy_aka_fabric_softener; renice -20; rm -rf /usr/home/* && vim /etc/inittab (add init 6 as default run level)

buahahahahaha.

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I don't like that.... I don't like that one bit :'(

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Originally Posted by gore

I could probably make a funnier nick name for you other than teddy bear and fabric softener. I'm sure some simple word play would make Fabric Softener and Software mend together.

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How about Snuggles!? Or Snuggl3s? eh? eh? eeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I wish I wasn't so corny >.<

EDIT: I LOVE NETHACK!

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Originally Posted by SnugglesTheBear

Apparently, (me and Hybrid and !(me and Hybrid)) != 0 huh gore? ;)

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Don't you get all numeric on me!

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I don't like that.... I don't like that one bit :'(

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Good thing you don't owe me money. My cousin did and wouldn't pay up, I rooted his box and made the default run level 6 and then rebooted his machine. He said it rebooted for an hour before he called me and I said Best Buy would install a fresh copy for him for about 4 X what he owed me, or, he could pay me what he owes me + what I'd charge for it. I got my money :)

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EDIT: I LOVE NETHACK!

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Try Dungeon Crawl. It's WAY better I think. On FreeBSD they have a port so all you have to do is log in as root and type this:

pkg_add -r dungeoncrawl

Debian has a package for it too, but, it's called "Crawl" instead of "Dungeon Crawl" and it's a VERY neat version of it. It has more classes and so on, and on top of that you get to be a Vampire lol.

Besides, playing this game leaves your self respect in tact because you aren't one of those dice rolling morons who wear stupid clothes and pretend it's 1200 AD. Which is funny, because the jack asses who do that would die in a day if it was.

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Originally Posted by gore

pkg_add -r dungeoncrawl

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Oh thanks! I have never used the ports system before! ;) I run openBSD at home so I will see if I can find this dungeon crawl =P

Should be there. I don't use OpenBSD but it does seem to share some ports.

Crap my covers been blown!!!

$ rm -r Coffee_Cup

@ instronics

Hi there, I have changed the main title of the thread for you............. I have added a moderator's note to the first post to explain what I have done.

nihil :)

Speaking of security on Opera......... look at this shiny new sploit!
http://seclists.org/bugtraq/2010/Jul/116