Kitz Forum

Computers & Hardware => Android & other hand held devices => Topic started by: broadstairs on September 26, 2010, 05:05:41 PM

Title: Opera Mini web browser on Android (and other) mobile phones
Post by: broadstairs on September 26, 2010, 05:05:41 PM
Was not sure if this is the correct group, anyway here goes....

Having just got a new Android mobile phone I was playing with the various web browsers you can get and tried Opera Mini, only to find that it cannot browse private IP adresses when connected to my home lan via WiFi. On investigating this I discovered that it uses Opera servers on the internet to sort of pre-process the web pages and sends the data to the phone to display so reducing the data and load on the phone. Since this is the way it works it explains why I could not access my private web server to test my mobile website pages prior to going live. 

Neat idea in some ways but it started to worry me from a security and privacy point of view. I then read that these servers break the end to end encryption of secure web sites which use https, doing this seems to me to be a very bad idea. Also I am worried that working like this means that, despite assurances from Opera to the contrary, the possibility exists of tracking users web surfing habits. In particular if these Opera servers do get hacked who knows what might happen. Now I know that there are some things which you have to take on trust (like your ISP for example) but using servers like these as a kind of proxy is a concern especially as I have no idea where these machines are. I must add that these are only my concerns and I have no evidence of any of these bad things being done, I just wont take the chance!

I have now deleted Opera Mini from my phone and currently use the Dolphin HD browser which does work on my private lan OK.

I just thought I'd mention all this in case others use their phones on the net with Opera.

Stuart