Vivaldi gets WebRTC Leak protection

Martin Brinkmann
Jul 11, 2016
Updated • Jun 27, 2017
Internet, Vivaldi
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10

Vivaldi released a new snapshot of the upcoming Vivaldi 1.3 web browser that brings along with it WebRTC Leak protection, additional mouse gestures, and improved hibernation support on Linux.

WebRTC, Web Real-Time Communication, is a relatively new feature of modern browsers used for real-time communication services without use if plugins.

Common WebRTC applications include chat, voice calling and P2P file sharing among other things. While certainly handy for Internet users who make use of it, it is of little use to those who don't.

Considering that WebRTC may leak IP addresses to services, even if you use a VPN, it is not something that should be ignored even if not used.

Extensions are available for Firefox, Opera and Chrome to block WebRTC leaks.

Vivaldi WebRTC Leak protection

vivaldi webrtc leak

The latest development snapshot of the Vivaldi browser ships with a native option to disable WebRTC leaks.

To find out if you are running the latest version of Vivaldi, select Vivaldi Menu > Help > Check for Updates. If you don't run a snapshot build of Vivaldi yet, you may download them from the official site. They are made available for all supported operating systems (Windows, Mac and Linux).

WebRTC leak protection was added to Vivaldi 1.3.534.3. The easiest way to enable it is the following one:

  1. Load vivaldi://settings/privacy/ in the browser's address bar.
  2. Locate WebRTC IP handling.
  3. Remove the checkmark from "Broadcast IP for best WebRTC Performance".

Use a third-party WebRTC leak test, for instance the one provided by Perfect Privacy, to make sure that the device's local and public IP addresses are not revealed anymore to sites.

WebRTC continues to work after you make the change. However, if you notice issues while using WebRTC applications, you may want to enable the feature again at least when you are using WebRTC apps in the browser.

Other new Vivaldi 1.3.534.3 features

vivaldi mouse gestures

The latest Vivaldi snapshot ships with a selection of new mouse gestures. Mouse gestures enable you to perform actions such as going back, zooming, or creating bookmarks using drawings that you make with the mouse.

When enabled, all you have to do is hold down the right mouse button and start drawing on the screen to perform these actions. It helps if you know what you are doing obviously, as the effect may be random otherwise.

Also, you may enable using the Alt-key instead for that which is helpful on devices without mouse connected to them.

To set up mouse gestures, load vivaldi://settings/mouse/ in the browser's address bar. Make sure "allow gestures" is enabled at the top and check out the available mappings by selecting them. Vivaldi displays the actual mouse gesture when you do, so that you know how it is drawn when you want to execute the action.

The new gestures are Scroll Top, Scroll Bottom, Scroll Page Up and Scroll Page Down. You find them by clicking on the plus icon underneath the mapped mouse gestures listing.

Linux users get tab hibernation finally. The feature was not available previously on Linux. To use it, right-click on a tab and select the hibernate option to free up system resources, or use the hibernate background tabs option displayed in the menu as well to put all but the active tab to sleep.

Another change in the latest version is a change in search engine provider. Vivaldi uses Yahoo now by default. This won't affect systems where users switched to another search engine provider already.

Vivaldi notes that this is a test and not a final change.

Summary
Vivaldi gets WebRTC Leak protection
Article Name
Vivaldi gets WebRTC Leak protection
Description
Vivaldi released a new snapshot of the upcoming Vivaldi 1.3 web browser that brings along with it WebRTC Leak protection, additional mouse gestures, and improved hibernation support on Linux.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Kubrick said on May 22, 2020 at 5:00 pm
    Reply

    WebRTC cannot be blocked in chromium based browsers and their forks.

  2. Bbadd said on February 12, 2020 at 8:56 am
    Reply

    There is a lot of online tools to check the webrtc. Browserleaks.com, bash.ws/webrtcleak, ipleak.com etc. On the contrary it looks like a pranoia. Webrtc itself was designed for multimedia streaming…

  3. Stavros Morten said on July 13, 2016 at 8:24 pm
    Reply

    Chef – i dont understand why you said this about open source, maybe the projects you saw werent popular? I know for sure that if open source was such a waste of time there wouldnt be thousands and thousands of projects following this model, regarding review of code i’m sure this is something that the most experienced vivaldi devs (or any devs from any other project) wont let a code be submitted that harms the project, this isnt the case with otter-browser for example and surely isnt with many others.

    I’ll repeat again, vivaldi owner(s) are failing in not following firefox’s route, this stupidity will cost MONTHS is not YEARS of development that could be done in way less time with help.

  4. CHEF-KOCH said on July 13, 2016 at 7:04 pm
    Reply

    OpenSource or not, in my opinion it makes normally nothing more secure or faster. I saw a lot of popular projects with 4k stars but the code mostly comes from the same guys. Don’t get fooled, most people not care about source or not want to make the work for others (4free) + in complicated projects with encryption and such it can also be dangerous if no one review each change because it might break stuff, so overall you need to test and review each patch one by one it costs the same time on closed source because the original developer need to confirm this anyway. It’s also pretty hard to talk to the community because other opinions and such, it’s sometimes annoying to explain everything each time.

    For me the ‘open source’ argument not really counts, you can open an ticket and ask for it I mean that’s all you need, it’s not only a problem if the code is only ‘read-only’, simply submit your changes and wait it gets confirmation.

  5. Leonardo said on July 13, 2016 at 12:21 am
    Reply

    The problem with our generation (the ones who met with the internet when they were born) is that we are at war within our generation and the older generation (not to mention the generation that is coming up all dump and stupid).

    We do not cooperate with each other. Because of that, we fail to fight to eradicate corruption, keep privacy intact and lose the chance to establish a new form of governance (direct democracy) to get rid of presidents, queens, ambassadors and all that irrelevant shit people – giving ways for ISIS supporter Kurdish killer Turkish people (almost 60% of them continuously elected Erdogan year after year so there! – but hey, thanks to Merkel we will have them in the EU soon even not they already export their barbaric politics to the EU like they did with Constantinople). Don’t know what I’m saying? Good, go back to sleep (better than wikipedia(ing) the issue!)

    In the context of above and in relation to this article, why not vivaldi just cooperate with firefox or have the other firefox/chrome duplicate coders to form 1 umbrella to bring the others down? Shame!

  6. Stavros Morten said on July 12, 2016 at 2:40 pm
    Reply

    Good to see a new feature but unfortunately vivald has a SERIOUS failure that makes it lag behind: It’s an open source browser like firefox but dont benefit from being a open source browser like firefox, mozilla lets users contribute with code, something that vivaldi didnt do so far, likely for VERY STUPID REASON(S). If the users contributed the development would be A HELL OF A LOT faster.

    When the devs will learn and put the source code https://vivaldi.com/source/ on GITHUB?

  7. CHEF-KOCH said on July 11, 2016 at 8:25 pm
    Reply

    WebRTC is like other protocols, it may can be abused for ‘evil’ reasons. That’s not something to entirely give up on the protocol, since it’s an part of HTML 5 it could be fixed for everyone without anything, I heard that the upcoming 5.1 HTML may also adress this issue. WebRTC is more and more important since Ffash is now dropped, because now you can do real-time communication directly without your browser for e.g. WhatsApp web, Skype, Jabber, .. and more. I think it’s an great protocol with potential. Someone should not forget now that flash is dyding we get the same issue with HTML5 because hacker now focus on this (which is good, because then we get faster security updates).

    1. wasimsikder said on September 9, 2018 at 1:57 pm
      Reply

      Good waty

  8. Dave said on July 11, 2016 at 5:51 pm
    Reply

    Is there a legitimate reason why a user would want WebRTC in their browser?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on July 11, 2016 at 6:02 pm
      Reply

      Yes, if you use services that make use of WebRTC. If you don’t you have no use for it but that is the case for many other browser features then.

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