On Friday, Samsung announced its new mobile data saving and privacy app called Samsung Max. The app replaces the existing “Opera Max”, which was a popular data-friendly mobile browser. However, Opera’s parent company announced its closure last year, so Samsung stepped in and acquired the app and its users.
Samsung Addresses Privacy Concerns
Seounghoon Oh, vice president for Samsung’s R&D Institude in India, said, “With Samsung Max, our users in every corner of the globe now have increased autonomy and control over their data usage and privacy in an era of rising security threats, fraudulent apps, and user profiling.”
Samsung Max looks to compete, somewhat, with Google’s Datally, an Android app for tracking and conserving mobile data usage. While Opera Max already had data-use conserving features, Samsung says it is beefing up both the data-saving and privacy-protection modes.
From the Samsung Newsroom:
Privacy Protection Mode – Open, untrusted, and unknown Wi-Fi hotspots are secured and protected with one-tap encryption, tracker blocking and a DNS (Domain Name System) masking service. These three features also offer privacy benefits on mobile networks, which enables Samsung Max to offer privacy protection on Mobile or Wi-Fi across all of your apps. This allows users to more securely access the internet from whichever connection is available, helping users stay connected on the go.“
Samsung Max Privacy Protection Mode
The app’s Privacy Protection Mode is an update on Opera’s version. However, Opera’s version was a VPN, so it altered users’ IP addresses. Samsung’s reworking will no longer use a VPN, instead offering a DNS masking service that doesn’t alter your IP address. This change makes the “private-mode” a little less private, but will still add some security for the app’s users. Samsung Max will also encrypt data that is sent over insecure Wi-Fi networks. This allows users to connect to more Wi-Fi networks without worrying about compromising their data. Finally, Samsung will add tracker blocking to the apps features, as tracking requires more data use.
