That’s a fair point, and I didn’t think about that. But it’s still weird to me, because basically everything else they mentioned does seem to be privacy related. Firefox, Brave, Proton, Tuta, Quad9, Mullvad’s DNS, Ente, DuckDuckGo, LibreWolf, Ungoogled Chromium, even Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser seem to be mentioned, etc. Also specific note in the description: “Unless you like being the product, how can you opt out and still live a connected life?”. That’s why I was just caught off-guard seeing Opera mentioned like that, felt so out of place with everything else they mentioned. I genuinely have no idea how it got included lol.
I think the main advantage of a mainstream channel like this making a video like this is that the majority of their audience probably has never considered the fact that there are other browsers than Chromium, that there are easy changes to make to your devices to make them more secure.
And I 100% agree with this, I think it’s great to bring awareness to this, especially from a mainstream channel like that. So many people just default to Google Search/Chrome/Gmail/etc. without a second thought, and making people aware that it doesn’t have to be that way is great. So I’m not trying to criticize too heavily because I think a video like this is a net good thing, it’s super nice to see. I just thought the Opera mention was super bizarre, and I really hope people don’t start using it because they think it’s a private alternative to Chrome.
How is any of this bizarre? Again, the advice is most likely ripped from Privacy Guides and other top search results (Reddit), based on the reasons I stated previously. The logical deduction is that they added Opera because it has sponsored them for this video or in the past, or it has popped up in these top search results.
For those arguing they are not acting in self-interest, then why would they essentially copy and paste advice from PG and Reddit, take this as their own work, and then add a sponsored recommendation which directly contradicts PG’s advice?
I am not suggesting you are naive, but I can not believe how naive people are, most people think that YouTuber’s make recommendations (sponsorships) out of the goodness of their heart. Opera is most likely a sponsorship. These people will cut any proverbial moral corner to make a profit, call it cynical, I really do not care, unless you can logical disprove this. In the meant time, I encourage everyone to look at things logically, ask themselves why is so and so the case?
I don’t remember them saying Opera was a sponsor. And if they didn’t disclose that, then Opera isn’t sponsoring the video.
It seems much more likely that they just included all the main browsers which aren’t Chrome, because it’s a de-Googling video and not an exclusively “privacy” video. Occam’s razor and all.
In my opinion, Opera shouldn’t have been included in the video, especially by such a big YouTube channel. Opera is in the same pile as HarmonyOS, TikTok, Temu, and other junk.
Idk I just quoted what I saw, regardless, the alternative reason is not much better, Reddit advice. But, my instinct is that they are sponsored by Opera and not disclosing it, or they are trying to do a good deed to Opera for future sponsorship opportunities.
LTT isn’t a dead YouTube channel that would be this desperate for money and sponsorships. They have plenty of sponsors, and they don’t need Opera to sponsor them.
Money talks my friend, all of this is pretty assumptive. Yes I have made assumptions, but they have been based on observation, and overwhelmingly it seems that YouTuber’s will take any sponsorship for the right price.
YouTuber’s will listen once they are called out to a great degree.