What about security, though? If Opera fails here, we can write it off for good. This might alarm some people, as China isn’t exactly known as a bastion of digital security.īut is this the case? We’ll find out when we check out the privacy features that Opera’s latest versions bring to the table. More importantly, from a privacy standpoint, the company behind the browser was purchased by a Chinese group in 2016. Into the 2010s, the browser changed dramatically, incorporating aspects of Google’s Chromium platform and generally starting to resemble the search engine’s offering more closely. All the while, the core browser remained free to use but has long been ad-supported as a result. In 1996, the first Opera browser for Windows appeared, and versions multiplied around the turn of the millennium (even extending to Nintendo DS editions). Actually, it’s one of the oldest browsers of all, having been born way back in 1994 in Norway. First off, not everyone will be acquainted with what Opera is and where it stands in relation to more popular alternatives like Chrome.