Opera recently built a free and unlimited VPN service into the developer version of its desktop browser. Now, the company is following up with a standalone VPN client for iOS that’ll let users bypass geo-restrictions for online content, circumvent firewalls, block ads, and thwart ad-tracking cookies. The new app is based on the SurfEasy VPN service acquired by Opera last March. It's free to use with unlimited data and no ads, for now.
Like its browser version, Opera VPN for iOS is based on the SurfEasy VPN service acquired by Opera last March. This time, however, Opera is bumping the number of available server locations from just three -- the U.S., Canada, and Germany -- to five by adding Singapore and the Netherlands as well. It’s also available in several languages, including English, Arabic, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
The app will compete with a handful of free VPN services available on iOS today. Even SurfEasy continues to offer its own standalone apps for Android and iOS, as well as desktop software, but charges a monthly or yearly subscription after a trial period.
While Opera VPN is free and will remain free for life, the company doesn’t rule out introducing advertising into the app in the future to support the business. SurfEasy President Chris Houston also makes it clear that the app collects anonymous data about how you use your mobile device, and Opera will make this information available to third parties. According to Houston, this is not data about what you do with your phone, but rather this is data about how a large group of people use their phones.
https://www.techspot.com/news/64749-opera-launches-free-standalone-vpn-client-ios.html
