Opera VPN is free, has no data limits and finally makes it to Android devices

Opera has announced a new product, Opera VPN, a standalone virtual private network service. The service is provided by SurfEasy Inc, an Opera company. The company claims that this is a free VPN app without any data limits. The app itself goes on to do more than just provide just a simple VPN service; it blocks IP as well as ad-tracking while keeping a paramount focus on the privacy of its users.  The app will be launched for Android starting today and will offer servers at five locations, namely Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore and United States. These locations help users access websites that have been blocked in their locations, organisations or countries. The iOS version of the app was launched back in May and has been downloaded by more than a million users according to the company.  Chris Houston, President of Surfeasy added, “The Opera VPN app for Android sets itself apart from other VPNs by offering a completely free service - without a data limit, no log-in required, advanced Wi-Fi protection features and no need for a subscription.” We received a pre-release version of the app and it stands its claims really well (as did the iOS version when it was released). App installation and setup wasa breeze. The in-app illustrations are centered around ‘Olaf’ the VPN viking showing you the ropes of how things work.  The app gives you a choice of  locations that you want to connect to, which can be used in an interesting way to surpass restrictions, including issues with geo-locked content. Apart from the content, the app provides users with a comprehensive report on how their Wi-Fi connection fares in terms of privacy and security. The app allows you to block trackers as well. Though this option has to be manually enabled in the app. The app worked well over the use of almost a full work day without any issues in browsing and internet surfing behaviour. However, we did encounter advertisements and content specifically targeted at the VPN server location (Germany in our case).  Opera has long provided users with robust technology and if they could bake Opera data compression offered by Opera Max into Opera VPN, the result could be one perfect solution for data saving and privacy. For this one moment we shall ignore the fear of backdoors in such services being given to us.