Opera Software, the European-based tech giant unveiled on Monday a virtual private network (VPN) client for iPhones and iPads. This launch comes after three weeks of the announcement that such a feature would be introduced for its Opera browser.
With this feature for iOS, it makes possible an absolutely free and unlimited VPN to iOS enabling users to bypass geo-restrictions on online content, block ads, circumvent firewalls and stop ad-tracking cookies.
This free service is the result of the acquisition of North American VPN SurfEasy in March by Opera. The company is now testing it in its browser-based VPN. Meanwhile, Opera Software is also in the process of being acquired by a Chinese consortium.
A few weeks ago, the VPNB/proxy arrived in the developer version of Opera for desktops, but it only supported three "virtual locations" which included Germany, Canada and the U.S.
With the launching of the iOS, customers can now pretend to be in the Netherlands or in Singapore. It now supports several languages including English, German, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Indonesian and French.
Opera VPN is also designed to protect users' privacy and is targeted to those who want a way to circumvent restricted internet access like those controlled by I.T. units in schools and in workplaces.
After this app is installed and opened in a device, it will take out ad-tracking cookies. These cookies only serve advertisers enabling personalized advertising and sharing of user information with other marketers and advertisers - without the user's knowledge and permission.
With this app, users can now encrypt their local web traffic for enhanced privacy protection. This is very useful especially when using unencrypted public Wi-Fi networks.
The app is toggled to "off" by default. However, a user can turn it on manually within the "Settings" menu, where two additional options to block ads and ad-trackers are also offered.
