Opera

Privacy, Security, and Advertising in Opera

Note: The following information only applies to Opera versions prior to 8.5. Opera version 8.5 no longer contains advertisment sponsorship.

Opera

Since Opera 5, Opera Software has added an advertising function to the browser. This decision was made so that we can offer the Opera browser for free - while still allowing us to receive some form of revenue (from the advertising) in order to help pay our bills and to continue to develop the renowned high-quality Opera products.

All of the code in the Opera browser was written by the developers of Opera Software ASA. This includes the code written to implement the specific banner-serving functionality in the browser. Much care was taken with this development so that user privacy and security would not be compromised.

What Opera does

Opera communicates with the ad service in order to be able to retrieve advertising content. When you install Opera, your browser connects to a registration server and receives a unique identifying number. This ID is not personally identifying, and is only used to communicate with the ad-related service as the browser occasionally sends and receives banner-related information. Without being able to set a unique ID to your browser, it would not have been possible to sell ads in Opera. When Opera is connected to the internet, the advertising content is occasionally refreshed by accessing an ad server which defines the content to be retrieved and written to Opera's cache on the hard disk of your computer. This communication is done in several steps. What Opera returns to the servers is the demographic information (see below), the info about the banners that were served to your browser, and whether or not the banners were clicked upon. When you are working offline with Opera, or when Opera is closed, there is no communication with the ad-related servers and no banners are retrieved. Banners that do display when you are working with Opera offline are shown from the stored disk cache.

What Opera does not do

• Opera is not spyware: Opera does not collect and send information about you, nor your computer, nor which sites that you visit. The numbers of ads that you view and click are recorded, and sent along with the profile information that you have specified in Opera's preferences, and that is all.
• The advertising component of Opera does not have communication with other parts of Opera. For example, it cannot access the info from your Opera Personal information preferences, nor can it read your history files.
• Opera does load banners into the cache and communicates (in a benign manner) with the ad servers on occasion, and this activity is not visible to the user as it is happening. Apart from this stated activity, Opera does not utilize your Internet connection in the background.
• Although it is possible for cookies to be set via an ad banner, these cookies can function no differently than those cookies served via any normal Web page. You even have the option to refuse them using Opera's cookie manager. See the Opera Privacy preferences and the Help for more information.
• If you pay for and register your copy of Opera, this personal data is not shared by Opera Software with any other parties. Additionally, no connection is made between your ad-specific demographic information and your personally-identifying data.