Tag: privacy

Tip #173

— Posted inDesktop, Vivaldi Tips — 1 min read

Get a reality check on how many trackers and ads actually follow you on the web from Privacy Statistics.

When you have Vivaldi’s Tracker and Ad Blocker enabled, you can take a look at how many trackers and ads have been blocked while you’ve been browsing with Vivaldi.

To see how many trackers and ads have been blocked on the website you’re on, click on the Content blocker button on the left side of the Address Field.

To see overall statistics, head over to the Start Page and take a look at the Privacy Statistics bar near the top. Click on it to see details.

In case you’ve disabled Privacy Statistics, you can use Quick Settings accessible from the top right corner of Start Page to enable them again.

Tip #159

— Posted inDesktop, Vivaldi Tips — 1 min read

Add custom blocker sources to Vivaldi’s Tracker and Ad Blocker.

The Tracker and Ad Blocker comes with a large selection of sources that can be enabled to block unwanted content on web pages. You can enable them in the browser’s Privacy and Security settings. In addition to the default sources, you can add your own custom source lists. To do that:

  1. Go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Tracker and Ad Blocker > Manage Sources.
  2. Click on Add List below Tracker Blocking Sources or Ad Blocking Sources lists.
  3. Locate the sources .txt file in your File Manager/Finder.
  4. Click Import.

The newly added list will be automatically enabled.

To find additional sources, you can start by checking this Forum thread, where Vivaldi Community members have shared the blocking sources they use.

Tip #143

— Posted inAndroid, Desktop, Vivaldi Tips — 1 min read

View saved passwords in Privacy Settings.

Unless you’ve disabled it from Settings, Vivaldi offers to save your login passwords in the browser. Your password is also saved when you use Vivaldi’s Sync, Mail and Calendar features.

To view saved login credentials on desktop:

  1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Passwords.
  2. Click on Show Saved Passwords.
  3. In the table of saved login credentials, click on Show Password in the passwords column.
  4. Verify yourself through your operating system’s authentication window.
  5. Check the password.
  6. When done, click on Hide Password.

To view saved login credentials on Android.

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu > Settings > General > Passwords.
  2. In the list of saved login credentials, tap on the saved login.
  3. Click on Show Password on the right side of the saved password.
  4. Verify yourself through your mobile device’s authentication window.
  5. Check the password.
  6. When done, click on Hide Password.

You also need to verify yourself when copying the password without viewing it first.

Tip #99

— Posted inDesktop, Vivaldi Tips — 2 min read

Copy links from the Address Field without additional parameters.

Sometimes web page links have additional information, called parameters, added to the end of the URL. These parameters are used for sorting and filtering, pagination, language options and more. But parameters can also be used for tracking users.

Example URL from Vivaldi Forum with multiple search parameters: 

https://forum.vivaldi.net/search?term=tab%20stacks&in=titlesposts&matchWords=all&categories%5B%5D=32&sortBy=relevance&sortDirection=desc&showAs=posts.

The same URL without parameters: 

https://forum.vivaldi.net/search.

Another example with tracking parameters:

https://www.grammarly.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=cpc&utm_phase=professional&utm_campaign=q222easeofusecampaign-prospecting&utm_content=60s-easeofusecampaignq222-professional&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_e-t0r39-QIVsUmRBR32zAH6EAEYASAAEgI-PPD_BwE.

With the link above, the website knows that I arrived on their page after clicking an ad on YouTube.

The same URL without parameters looks like this:

https://www.grammarly.com/.

While search, filtering and other similar parameters are mostly useful, tracking parameters do not benefit users. So, even if you have navigated to page from a link that has parameters at the end, consider removing them before saving the link for future use or before sharing it further.

To copy a link that you have open in the active tab without parameters:

  1. Right-click on the Address Field.
  2. Select Copy without parameters.

Tip #68

— Posted inDesktop, Vivaldi Tips — 1 min read

Adjust tracker and ad blocking level per site from the Address Bar.

Let’s say you block all ads and trackers by default, but want to make an exception for a specific website that you trust or, maybe, the site behaves strangely, so you want to check whether disabling the content blocker will solve the issue. In that case, while the website you want to change the blocking level for is open in the active tab:

  1. Click on the  Content Blocker button on the left side of the Address field.
  2. Choose between:
    • No Blocking,
    • Block Trackers, or
    • Block Trackers and Ads.

You can view and manage all websites you’ve set a separate blocking level for in Settings > Privacy and Security > Tracker and Ad Blocking > Exceptions.

Tip #26

— Posted inAndroid, Vivaldi Tips — 1 min read

Enable “Clear session browsing data on exit” in Vivaldi on Android to close all tabs and delete history, cookies and cache after use.

To enable the settings:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu > Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data on exit.
  2. Toggle on the setting.
  3. Choose which data types you want to delete:
    • Browsing history.
    • Cookies and site data.
    • Cached images and files.
    • Close open tabs.

It’s not enough to minimize the app or remove it from the app switcher menu to exit the browser. To exit Vivaldi:

  1. Go to the Vivaldi menu.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the menu.
  3. Select Exit.

Tip #19

— Posted inDesktop, Vivaldi Tips — 2 min read

Enable “Remove cookie warnings” in Tracker and Ad Blocker settings to hide websites’ cookie dialogs.

Since Europe’s GDPR and a few other user privacy laws don’t allow placing Cookies in your browser without consent, on your first visit, most websites ask for your permission as soon as the page has loaded. Accepting all cookies will allow the website and third parties to collect information on you and use the data in an attempt to influence your decisions later on. Until there’s better legislation, we recommend rejecting these cookies. But, depending on the website, rejecting all cookies can take minutes, slowing down your browsing significantly.

That’s why we’ve added a way to remove these cookie dialogs in the browser. To enable it:

  1. Go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Tracker and Ad Blocking > Blocking Level.
  2. Enable Block Trackers and Ads.
  3. Then, click Manage Sources.
  4. In the list of Ad Blocking sources, look for “Remove cookie warnings (EasyList Cookie List)” and “Remove cookie warnings (I don’t care about cookies)” and enable them.

Enabling these lists will simply block the service that asks for consent, or hide the consent dialog, in the same way as it might remove a tracker or an ad. Without consent cookies cannot be placed in the browser.

We at Vivaldi believe that spying on users on the Internet using cookies and other tracking methods should be banned. To join our fight, check out https://banspying.org and share it with your friends.