If you’re online a lot of the time, it’s important to keep prying eyes off your browsing habits and Vivaldi new browser is one you should consider downloading.
Vivaldi joins the growing list of privacy-focused apps. If you browse the web a lot, it’s likely you are aware that your browsing habits can be monitored by trackers advertisers place on their webpages.
These embedded trackers gather your browsing history plus other settings that altogether form a user profile in what is known as fingerprinting. You can use privacy-first browsers such as Firefox, Opera or if you’re still on Chrome, get these extensions.
Vivaldi wants in too. The browser was actually developed by Opera browser’s co-creator – Jon von Tetzchner, who now runs Vivaldi.
Vivaldi new browser brings a couple of privacy-focused features that include a tracking blocker powered by DuckDuckGo’s Tracker Radar. This tool keeps trackers at bay by regularly crawling the web to identify new trackers to block.
The company uses it themselves to power the tracker protection in DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser mobile apps and DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials desktop browser extensions.
You’ll have to enable this feature as it is disabled by default. You can customise levels of tracking and what sites to be exempted.
You can also do this straight from the address bar by clicking the shield icon.
It’s worth noting that by default, the browser blocks advertisements on sites with abusive ad practices, such as ads which are purposefully misleading users and ads using abusive technologies – for example, pop-ups that prevent you from leaving the site.
Get Vivaldi browser here.
Vivaldi Android App Is Now Live
Vivaldi Android app had been in beta since September last year and has now exited.
The app brings features from its browser app such as Speed Dials which are grids of saved site shortcuts and bookmarks that you can organize and customize.
One neat feature is the ability to type custom “nicknames” in the address bar, like “d” for DuckDuckGo, and your search will route through that engine.
You can also type up notes without switching to a separate app – handy for multitaskers.
The new tracker blocker is also included.
Other features include syncing bookmarks, speed dials, passwords, autofill information, notes, default end-to-end encryption(This data is stored in Vivaldi’s own servers in Iceland), great tab management and a timer.
Download the Android app here.
What They Are Saying
“Now more than ever, humanity needs an internet that’s well-functioning and open but also private and secure. With the new Vivaldi, users can browse with its wealth of features freely and efficiently without being tracked online,” said von Tetzchner.
