How private is the Opera Turbo feature of Opera?

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If I'm using Opera with the Opera Turbo feature turned on (always, not set to "automaticly"). Can anyone see what sites I'm visiting (except Opera of course ...)? Opera Turbo uses a proxy server, so it should be that way, but as a not very technical person I'm not sure.

Why do I want this? Well: nowadays, at least in my country, more and more (legal) open Wi-Fi connections are available. In those environments I like to have more privacy protections. I don't mind if they can see my IP address, but I just want to hide as much as I can of what I am doing.

BTW: I don't care that they can see the data transferred; it doesn't have to be that secret. I only want to hide the requested Internet site links.

BTW: I know that Opera Turbo only works with non-secure websites (HTTP), but that's fine for me. I only want it to work with these sites.

BTW: I'm not need this for illegal purposes; I only want this for privacy reasons.

user18861

Posted 2011-06-07T08:00:56.047

Reputation:

What exactly, is your question? – Sathyajith Bhat – 2011-06-07T08:35:03.980

I'm guessing he mean "cannot be listened to when using open wifi" ? – Manu – 2011-06-07T08:37:25.003

@Sathya: As I've wrote: "... is it so that nobody can see what sites I'm visiting (except Opera of course ...)?". – None – 2011-06-07T08:37:53.100

1@Manu: Yes, that's what I mean. Nowadays, at least in my Country, more and more (legal) open Wifi connections are available. In those environments I like to have more privacy protection. I'll update my question. – None – 2011-06-07T08:40:02.130

I wonder this too, I've asked the question to steve gibson, of grc.com, maybe he'll talk about it on security now :) – Manu – 2011-06-07T08:44:09.390

Unless Opera encrypt the transmissions this is no more secure than regular communications. I don't know for sure, but I would hazard a guess that transmissions are not encrypted, as the service is aimed primarily at low-powered mobile devices which may not have the horsepower to decrypt on the fly at acceptable speeds. – Phoshi – 2011-06-07T10:44:19.910

The proxy server knows what sites you visit, there is no such thing as being anonymous, unless you have serious hacking skills. – Moab – 2011-06-07T10:55:08.863

@Moab, @Phoshi: I only want to be protected against someone on the same Wifi/network trying to see what sites I'm connecting to. – None – 2011-06-07T11:04:39.587

@ Marc V, you asked how private it was.....maybe you should edit your original post to clarify the question. – Moab – 2011-06-07T11:24:37.160

@Moab: Done. Hope this clarifies my question more. – None – 2011-06-07T11:33:30.187

As far as I can tell the proxy option does not encrypt anything, all it does is hide your IP from any website you visit. Your ISP still knows what all your requests are. – Moab – 2011-06-07T13:08:53.563

Turbo mode was never intended as a privacy feature, but only to speed up page loads. – Moab – 2011-06-07T13:10:00.787

Answers

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You have pretty much answered your own question. True they cannot listen to IP address you are communicating to but they can listen to websites you are seeing as for unencrypted connections it is sent in the HTTP headers (or some compressed headers if Opera Turbo uses that). So your assumption that they won't know what website you are dealing with is quite naive.

To achieve the kind of privacy you want, you can use Tor or set up your own SSL tunnels.

Xolve

Posted 2011-06-07T08:00:56.047

Reputation: 450

I somehow did suspect this, but needed some confirmation which you now gave me. – None – 2011-06-09T07:17:50.870