Hacker News Reader

Comment by jsm386 | Hacker News Reader

Opera Mini requests web pages through the Opera Software company's servers, which process and compress them before relaying the pages back to the mobile phone. This compression process makes transfer time about two to three times faster, and the pre-processing smoothes compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.

How is this not a massive privacy/security issue? You are trusting Opera to not look at your content, and as mentioned later on: Opera Mini has received some criticism because it does not offer true, end-to-end security when visiting encrypted sites such as paypal.com.[49] When visiting an encrypted web page, the Opera Software company's servers decrypt the page, then re-encrypt it themselves, breaking end-to-end security

View on HN

And this is why it will be denied. Opera mini is not a web browser. It is a viewer for a proxy server. This is a huge security risk because you're not just trusting the remote server, but you also have to trust Opera as well. And when dealing with SSL, the entire thing falls apart.

I think that they only way this could or should be accepted is if it doesn't support HTTPS at all. And even then it should pop up a very large disclaimer stating that everything you browser will be visible to Opera.

All in all, this is just a gimmick. If they wanted to really prove their point, they'd have ported their actual browser to the iPhone. Then they'd have something to complain about. The mini version of Opera has a place on underpowered handsets, but the iPhone is more than capable of running a full browser. But as it is, I don't think that this can be seen as anything more than a publicity stunt.

Of course it's a web browser. It looks like a web browser and you can browse the internet with it. I think those are sufficient conditions. Opera Mini is a good solution when you want to read a few blogs or check up on wikipedia.

Remember we're living in an era where most people read their webmail via an unsecured connection. The risk of using Opera as a middle man pales in comparison to all the security risks people casually take.

I think Opera Mini offers a good trade-off between speed and security, and I don't think it's gimmicky at all.

It doesn't actually browse the web. It is a viewer for the Opera servers that are actually browsing the web.

Just because most people take greater risks with their email doesn't mean that Apple should support the endeavor. In my opinion breaking the SSL/TLS security chain is a big no-no. Unless their app doesn't support HTTPS sites, that's enough for me to support Apple denying it.

Opera do highlight this in their FAQ: http://www.opera.com/mobile/help/faq/#connection

Is there any end-to-end security between my handset and — for example — paypal.com or my bank? No. If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full Web browser such as Opera Mobile.

Nobody is going to look there, I should hope it's presented when they try to load up an SSL page.

The whole point of Opera Mini as an app is for them to rearrange your content; complaining that they can see the content seems schizophrenic.

However, Opera needs to be sure to disclose/advertise the app as a proxy and not just a browser. Personally, I will never want to use a "browser" app with a proxy in the middle, but as long as others are fully aware of what they are downloading then they at least knowingly get to assume whatever risk is involved.

The people who actually care (i.e. you and I) already know about it. The people who don't care, have much bigger security concerns, IMO. Most people don't check for SSL when entering credit card information, so I doubt they would care about this if they thought it good speed up their browsing as much as Opera says it can.

edit: Though I do agree - I would trust them a little more if they were a little more outspoken about the security implications of what's going on.

I didn't know about it. I had Opera Mini on my old ADP1 and had no idea it was acting as a proxy viewer. Or maybe Opera Mini on Android isn't the same as the one currently submitted to Apple?

It is not at all the point, the point is to provide a faster browsing experience, Opera servers rearranging the content is just a means to an end.

Indeed, if the iPhone was sufficiently powerful, it would be faster to do do the transformations locally.

edit: this is not a swipe at the iPhone, but support for the statement that using Opera's severs is not a functional requirement.

I don't think it's taken as a swipe at the iPhone, more that I think doing it locally would remove any performance/speed gains that it provides. Granted, you could still cache a certain amount of data locally, but browsers do that anyway.

That's rather my point. If the phone was sufficiently powerful, you wouldn't lose any performance gains. I'm implicitly defining sufficiently powerful to be however powerful the iPhone would need to be to see no performance drop.

Once we assume the CPU and memory of the iPhone can handle it, doing it that way would be faster since there would be less latency involved.

Huh... where do they say this? I assumed it was a normal browser.

Wow, this is a PERFECT opportunity for iPhone users in China to get through the Great Firewall! (I hope they will encrypt it somehow before sending back)

… until China blocks Opera.

Yeah that's a problem. my guess would be the # of iPhone users doing this is extremely small that the government won't bother.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com