Hi all,

I don’t really know how to ask this question. On one of my devices, I downloaded a web browser (Opera) and one of my friends made fun of me, saying that “you better like China knowing all the stuff you do online”.

I read the Opera website and it says it’s a Norwegian company, but on Wikipedia it does say it was bought by a Chinese company.

My question is: what does “China” do with my personal browsing data? Why is it useful for them? (and who are we referring to here, is that the Chinese government, a private company, who?)

I’m looking forward to learn more about digital privacy, but I don’t currently understand the “obviousness” of how it is wrong to use Opera.

I’m a tech enthusiast (hence why I’m here), but I’m cognizant that I have large knowledge gaps in some of these topics.

Thank you in advance.

    • calabast
      101·
      3 months ago

      Lol, literally no one is saying it’s good for Google/apple/us government to know everything about you. A much more accurate comment would be “east bad west bad”.

      EDIT: I suppose some of the comments could be characterized as “east bad, west bad, china bad but better at it than everyone else”. Which COULD be taken as an insult or a compliment (or both) to China.

      • moreeni
        1·
        3 months ago

        Nobody whines about GAFAM companies or the US government as much as people do about China. It’s just ridiculous, I have been a member of privacy-conscious communities for years and what I have noticed is that the first are often given the benefit of the doubt, or, with the case of Western governments, might not even be mentioned. On the other hand, the latter would be mentioned upfront even if there’s the smallest tie to it.