Four things that Samsung’s S Secure feature does to protect your app privacy on public Wi-Fi networks.

Since September 2015, Opera Max, our free data saving and data management app, has enabled tens of millions of Samsung smartphone users to manage and save app data through its Ultra Data Saving (UDS) mode. We continue working closely with Samsung to bring users another ground breaking feature that all smartphone users need more than ever before: privacy mode.

As you may be aware, unprotected public Wi-Fi networks are often seen in coffee shops, airports, bus stops, train stations and in millions of other public spaces. When you connect to an unsecured Wi-Fi network, you are at risk; anyone can easily intercept all of your traffic and read virtually everything you send from your mobile device(s).

To solve this widespread privacy issue around the world, it’s a natural step for us to enhance Opera Max’s data management capability to not only reduce your data consumption but also offer you data security and privacy.

Opera Max’s privacy mode will be available first on the recently launched Samsung Galaxy J5 Prime and Galaxy J7 Prime devices, together with Samsung’s S Secure. This feature encrypts app data and browsing traffic on Wi-Fi networks. Simply put, it does four things for you:

Reveal which apps leak your private data

Knowledge is power. It is incredibly helpful and empowering for you to learn which apps are being sneaky and reporting your data – and which apps take good care of your data privacy.

Opera Max’s privacy mode timeline reveals which apps are misbehaving in terms of:

1. Deliberately sharing your private info with known third-party tracking services.
2. Poorly implemented HTTPS or using HTTP.

To protect your data privacy, we are implementing EasyPrivacy filter list, an open source that removes all forms of tracking from the internet. Some of the leading privacy and ad blocking services in the world, like Ad Block Plus, base the core of their blocking mechanisms on Easy Privacy.

Add an additional layer of shielding to your data

When you are using social media accounts or apps, banking apps, or shopping online via a public Wi-Fi network, hackers can gather your personal data and steal your bank account number, credit card numbers or other financial information stored in online retailer accounts or shopping apps, especially if the websites/apps you are using are poorly protected in the way they communicate with their webservers (e.g., making connections over http). Instant-messaging and other communications apps may contain security holes that allow hackers to snatch your personal data.

With Opera Max’s privacy mode, your data is always encrypted and anonymized. It provides an extra layer of industry-standard TLS/SSL protection on top of whatever the banking or shopping service you are using does or does not offer.

Protect your important documents, photos and video

Syncing files through your various storage accounts over plain http connections on your phone on unsecure Wi-Fi networks makes them vulnerable. It could be a folder you use at work, a text file where you keep your social number, driver’s license number, addresses, passwords, answers to security questions, or private photos and videos. Privacy mode hides information about requested webpages within the Wi-Fi network, protecting your unencrypted files from being intercepted by others.

On average, the most popular Android apps send data to three different online services. This information may go to marketers and others. Some of the most sneaky apps send your data to dozens and dozens of third parties. University lab research has shown that some extremely data greedy apps share your info with over 700 + third-party website hosts. Opera Max’s privacy mode stops websites and apps from collecting this data both by hiding your IP and by blocking tracking requests.

Avoid embarrassing ads following you around the web

If you’ve visited private and sensitive websites while surfing the web on your Android device, for example, a website about a medical condition or an online store you visited when looking for a surprise gift, you don’t want embarassing ads related to that particular website appearing on all your apps. To avoid embarrassing ads following you around, we recommend you to activate incognito mode on your browser and Opera Max’s privacy mode. They will delete tracking cookies that are used to tag you as a former visitor of a website.

Opera Max’s privacy mode is a type of private or incognito mode that works across all apps. It not only deletes cookies, but also cleans and filters your data traffic, even blocking connections to known tracking services and hosts. We may not be able to prevent all tracking on the internet, because major tech giants depend on tracking your browsing activity and searches for their revenues, but we will definitely reduce the number of third parties that can track and tag you with cookies so that ads follow you around the web.

We are excited to launch privacy mode with Samsung to offer better privacy and data protection for Samsung fans.

For more information about Samsung’s S Secure, you can visit http://www.samsung.com/in/microsite/galaxy-j-prime/s-secure.html.

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