A man for the four seasons

INTERVIEW Jon von Tetzchner started not one, but two web browser companies during his career.

Today, he is CEO of Vivaldi Technologies, the company behind the Vivaldi browser, launched in 2016.

Prior to that, von Tetzchner co-founded Opera Software, to develop and market browser technology originally developed by Telenor, the Norwegian state telecommunications company.

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With Vivaldi, von Tetzchner has developed a browser optimized for privacy and security. The intent is to keep Vivaldi free and owned by company employees.

A night at the Opera

Additionally, Vivaldi will continue to meet the needs of more technical users.

“I’ve been doing browsers since I’ve been alive, more or less,” von Tetzchner said. The daily sip. “I started making browsers in 1994. It’s my second browser company… After leaving Opera, Opera went in the same direction as all other browsers.”

The software developer continued, “Browsers compete, primarily on the quality of their distribution. We believe there is a need for a browser that has a different approach and a different way of thinking.

Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Vivaldi Technologies

Take back control

Part of Vivaldi’s mission, according to von Tetzchner, is to give users more control over their browsing experience.

“You spend so much time in front of your browser. It is the most widely used tool in the world. If you’re going to use a browser, isn’t it great to have a browser that actually takes your needs as a user into consideration and not just some random median person? »

The technologist describes the browser as a “cross-platform application platform”.

“What we have is the ability to write apps that will run anywhere, and you can run almost anything in the browser,” says von Tetzchner. “Most of the time when you run apps now, it’s really in the browser. It uses web technologies, just in a separate window.

The great navigator is watching you

The trusted status of browsers as the platform on which multiple applications run raises critical issues regarding security and privacy. Von Tetzchner emphasizes that Vivaldi is not in the business of collecting personal information. But collecting and tracking data on the web, including for advertising, is a real problem.

“I don’t think from a security perspective you can ignore the fact that our data was collected the way it is, and I think that’s a huge security issue,” he said. -he declares. “And we see the consequences of that on a daily basis.”

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“Most people don’t realize the amount of data and the type of data that is collected,” von Tetzchner added. “It’s everything you do on the web, not just the pages you visit. These are the links you click on, how long you look at, what you hover over, where you stay on the page. There are a lot of details that I don’t think people realize.

Von Tetzchner adds: “And then there is location information, including Bluetooth beacon technologies, which will follow. [you] inside buildings. Worst of all is the collection of this information in one profile. It’s definitely a ‘1984’ type situation.

The co-founder of Vivaldi claims that this data collection leads to targeting Internet users, whether for their political beliefs, what they read or their musical tastes. “The privacy side is a huge security issue and it is used in the worst case, for war,” he warns.

on the wrong path

Ultimately, von Tetzchner would like to see user profiling banned.

He concedes that there are legitimate reasons for collecting user data: traffic information, or health data, as long as they are used only for this purpose. But going beyond that and profiling users is not justified.

“The fact that the data exists does not give the company the right to misuse it,” argues von Tetzchner. “You wouldn’t expect your postman to read your mail, you wouldn’t expect your telephone company to listen to your calls, and you wouldn’t expect the carpenter to inventory your furniture. So it’s just a matter of what’s reasonable.

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Von Tetzchner worries about spyware and opposes technologies that track users between sites. He believes that most internet users accept “normal ads”, not those that follow the viewer online. The browser pioneer believes that these encourage business models that “invent news or copy news”, rather than rewarding those who create original content. And tracking pushes Internet users to ad blockers.

“In a way, going back to the model we had before [trackers] would be better for everyone… I think a lot of people would be fine with seeing ads, but I think they are afraid of the level of tracking that occurs.

This prompted Vivaldi to give its users more control over the types of data they share, unlike most other browsing companies.

Chrome codebase

When it comes to securing the browser app itself, von Tetzchner sees Vivaldi’s place as being within the Chromium ecosystem.

Vivaldi is based on Chromium code, with security issues and fixes mostly contained within the Chromium ecosystem.

“We are making changes to this code,” says von Tetzchner. “A lot of this is about privacy, [for example] not calling home as much and stuff like that. But overall, a multitude of companies use the same codebase, all trying to protect it. »

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Most of Vivaldi’s user interface (UI) technology is web-based, especially for desktop clients.

But, if there are any code changes for security or other reasons, the company returns them to the Chromium community as open source software.

However, users, whether individual or corporate, must take care of their own security, ensuring that operating systems and other tools are up to date.

“If you think about it, we had massive hacks…the reality [is] the wealth of information contained in these [online] platforms is huge. It should never be accessible. And it shouldn’t be collected that way.

“There are really bad things that can happen with people hacking all kinds of devices, especially as we move forward with the Internet of Things, with proprietary solutions, quite often with hardware that’s awesome, with software that isn’t. Maybe running outdated operating systems and such. I think it’s a security issue. Any device you can connect to is hackable. And again, s ‘they also collect information, it’s even worse.

It is up to users to guard against vulnerabilities.

“It’s about basic things like making sure everything you run is running up-to-date software. Obviously, using a browser that doesn’t spy on you is also a good idea,” advises von Tetzchner.

“Be careful where you are going. Don’t go to stupid sites. Do not give your information to random people. Use the password manager so you don’t use the same passwords everywhere.

“Use an email client. The reality is that if you use webmail often, it will show you HTML mail. Does it enable tracking? People don’t think about that. [It] maybe just reading an email you give [up] information. And of course it shouldn’t be that way.

Vroom, Vroom

Over the past few years, Vivaldi has added an email client, calendar, and feeds to its suite of products.

But von Tetzchner doesn’t see that as a limitation. The company recently ported its browser to work on the Polestar line of electric cars.

“It’s automotive Android, and there are a lot of manufacturers moving in that direction,” he explains. “And as part of that package, there’s no browser. So, we saw an opportunity to go there. I mean, what’s the point of having internet in your car if you can’t nothing to do with it?”

This, according to von Tetzchner, is the other part of Vivaldi’s mission: “to spread the browser as widely as possible”.

“It’s like working on a real computer,” von Tetzchner said. “If I’m doing serious work, I like having a keyboard and now I have a keyboard in my glove box. I can do real work, if needed, even if I don’t have my computer.

Whether opening up browsers to the automotive world leads to more security and privacy concerns remains to be seen.

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