Opera Doubles Down on Privacy With New Built-In Tracker Blocker

Tracker blockers on web browsers are a pretty new concept that’s slowly making its way to all the major browsers to help protect users’ privacy. Microsoft’s new Edge browser has a built-in tracking protection feature, and Firefox also had the feature for a little while. And now, Opera is introducing a built-in tracker blocker.

With the release of Opera 64, the browser now includes a built-in tracker blocker that uses the EasyPrivacy Tracking Protection List to block any trackers on the web. The browser lets you easily turn off the blocker on individual sites from the address bar, as tracker blockers can sometimes break the functionality of certain websites.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Opera says the new feature will lead to significant increases in performance. The company says the tracker blocker alone can speed up page load speeds by around 20%, and combining it with the existing ad blocker can result in performance increases of up to 76%.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 4 comments

  • zicoz

    08 October, 2019 - 6:03 am

    <p>Just switch to Brave.</p>

  • Kudupa

    08 October, 2019 - 7:16 am

    <p>Opera is a neat little browser which does a lot of things right and it's better than Chrome in my opinion. </p>

  • Thom77

    08 October, 2019 - 11:28 am

    <p>Opera is spyware and malware and probably other "wares".</p><p><br></p><p>I installed it a month ago and after a week started getting non stop spamming of advertisements .. from Opera … through my Windows notification system.</p><p><br></p><p>And I mean non stop spamming.</p><p><br></p><p>It shouldnt be considered a legitamate browser at this point and given free exposure.</p>

  • nevadah

    08 October, 2019 - 12:09 pm

    <p>The issue I have with built-in tracker blockers is that they only allow you disable them on a per-site basis. I like Privacy Badger. One advantage is that you can disable blocking of individual trackers. That way, if a site is broken and you are willing to do so, you can enable just enough of what is being blocked to restore functionality. It also differentiates between allowing a tracker, and allowing a tracker to store cookies. You can allow the tracker but block its cookies, or you can allow the tracker and its cookies. I've yet to encounter a situation where I fixing a site required allowing the tracker _and_ its cookies. Allowing the tracker alone has always been enough.</p><p> </p><p>By the way, this page has 16 trackers that are at least partially blocked by Privacy Badger by default. Most are fully blocked, some allow the tracker but block cookies.</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC