- Its goal is to give maximum functionality on mobile and desktop and keep user privacy on top.
- The company has added translate and the beta version of Vivaldi Mail, Calendar and Feed Reader in its version 4.0 to stand out from the crowd and give users a real alternative to Big Tech.
- Vivaldi 4.0 arrives on Windows, Mac, Linux computers, and Android devices.
Many sites, apps and browsers want to gather as much information as possible about us when we visit them and later sell the collected data to advertisers for a profit.
Web browser Vivaldi, based on the same Chromium engine as Google Chrome, is a freeware and cross-platform browser developed by Vivaldi technologies, giving users plenty of features while protecting their privacy.
Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, Vivaldi continues to tackle privacy issues plaguing the internet such as data collection, user tracking, and profiling including Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC,) Google’s latest privacy-invasive technology.
Jon von Tetzchner, former co-founder of Opera Software and Vivaldi CEO, told TechChannel News that they have no use of data, zero interest and zero access to the data as it is either stored locally on the users’ machine or encrypted.
“We’ve baked a “tracker blocker” right into the browser. It protects people from the ubiquitous web trackers that follow you around the web gathering your personal information. We’re building Vivaldi without any privacy-infringing tracking,” he said.
The company has made significant performance improvements to the Vivaldi browser that is independent of the Chromium code.
“Although we use the Chromium engine, when you sync data between devices with Vivaldi nothing is leaked to Google. The changes we have made to the engine make it incompatible with Chrome synchronisation. With Vivaldi, your sync data is not only safe from Google but it’s protected with end-to-end encryption. Unlike Google, we aren’t an advertising company. We disable a lot of stuff in the Chromium code to keep your data private,” he said.
Vivaldi was launched in 2015 to make up for the lack of customisation and loss of features in other browsers.
Striking a sweet spot
“From the very beginning, we’ve focused on building our own, highly customisable UI, and unique features. Our goal is to give maximum functionality on mobile and desktop and keep user privacy on top. That is why our Sync functionality works wonders and also keeps your data safe. The browser is a pretty key piece of software on any device but each of us uses it in a unique way,” Tetzchner said.
Despite chromium’s near-monopoly on the web, we have so many browsers such as Microsoft Edge, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Opera, Firefox, etc. and do we need a new one.
In terms of competition, Tetzchner said that Vivaldi is trying to strike that sweet spot between customisability, productivity, and privacy so this should overall be the better choice if users don’t care much about using Duckduckgo, Firefox or others.
“People are different and their needs are different. Why not have more choices. There’s a host of stuff you can’t do in Chome but you can in Vivaldi,” he said.
Vivaldi is still small in users when compared to Chrome but it is speeding at a hare’s pace.
Posing a real alternative to Big Tech
The company, in its 4.0 version, has added translate and the beta version of Vivaldi Mail, Calendar and Feed Reader to stand out from the crowd and give users a real alternative to Big Tech.
Vivaldi 4.0 arrives on Windows, Mac, Linux computers, and Android devices.
Vivaldi on desktop and Android now offer Vivaldi Translate, a built-in, privacy-friendly translation service, powered by Lingvanex and hosted by Vivaldi, keeping translations out of the reach of companies like Google or Microsoft.
The eagerly-awaited beta versions of Vivaldi Mail with Vivaldi Feed Reader and Vivaldi Calendar are now available on desktop. While Vivaldi Mail Beta works with existing mail and calendar services, users can also choose to set up an account on vivaldi.net or add a trusted third-party service, such as Fastmail.
“With version 4.0, Vivaldi is making it easier to break away from the locked ecosystems and creepy, surveillance-driven practices of huge corporations,” Tetzchner said.
With an expanded set of integrated features, he said that it will give users more control of their data and your workflow.
“Simply put, the era of trusting Big Tech is over. Google has access to every piece of text that is translated. And they have been able to get away with it due to the lack of reliable options,” he said.