Opera Setup:
Follow these steps to install our Opera Extension:
Step 1: Install
To begin, first visit the Opera add-ons store and install the PIA extension. Once the extension has been added, you will see a red PIA robot icon appear in the top right-hand side of your browser, next to the address bar.
Step 2: Open Extension
Click on the robot icon to open the extension.
Step 3: Login
Enter your username and password and click “Login” to begin using the extension. Select “Remember me” if you would like to remain logged into the extension across browser sessions.
Step 4: Connect
Once you have logged in, click on the region list and select the gateway you would like to use to connect. One selected, the VPN should automatically connect. You can press the power button to connect and disconnect.
Step 5. Confirm you are connected
You can visit the PIA website and ensure the message says " Protected
Step 6: Configure Settings
Once you have connected to your desired region, you can access the extra features by clicking the 3 dots in the top right corner of the extension menu:
If you make any changes to the extension settings, be sure to disconnect and reconnect to save the changes.
Security:
- Block Adobe Flash: Block Chrome from running Adobe Flash. Adobe Flash can be used to reveal your public IP address. We do not recommend disabling this.
- Block WebRTC IP Detection: Block Chrome revealing your public and private IP addresses when WebRTC is being used. We do not recommend disabling this.
Privacy:
- Block camera, microphone, and location access: Blocks websites from accessing these functions to prevent websites from gaining information about you.
- Disable network prediction: Disable Chrome from using a network prediction service that pre-resolves DNS queries and pre-fetches webpages from the content found on a page you visit
- Disable Safe Browsing: Disable Chrome from making direct connection to a network service that has privacy concerns around keeping logs. PIA MACE mitigates the risk in disabling this service
- Disable credit card autofill: Disable Chrome from automatically filling in credit card information. This could leak personal data via hidden form fields.
- Disable address autofill: Disable Chrome from automatically filling addresses and other form data. This could leak personal data via hidden form fields.
Tracking:
- Disable third party cookies: Disables third party cookies (pretty vague huh?)
- Disable website referrer: Disable Chrome from sending the address of the current webpage to another webpage when following a link.
- Disable hyperlink auditing: Disable hyperlink auditing, a recent HTML feature designed for notifying tracks and analytic services when you click on a link.
- Remove UTM parameters: Remove Urchin Tracking Model (UTM) parameters from URLs you click on. UTM parameters are used to track information about your visit to a website.
- Remove FBCLID parameters: Remove Facebook FBCLID parameters from outgoing links in Facebook. FBCLID parameters are used to track information about your visit to a website.
- PIA MACE: PIA MACE helps protect your privacy and security by blocking malicious content, trackers and ads (more about MACE here).
You can access the extension features by clicking the 3 dots in the top right corner of the extension menu:
Extension:
- Allow desktop notifications: Allow the extension to create a desktop notification when something important happens. We do not recommend disabling this.
- Always active settings: Cause settings to always remain active, regardless of whether proxy is connected or not.
- Dark Theme: Enable a darker theme for the extension to use in low light conditions
- Debug mode: Write messages to the debug log. Press the 'ctrl' key followed by the 'd' key to show the debug log.
- UI Language: The language used by the extension when displaying text.
Bypass List:
With this feature, you can add websites to be excluded from the PIA extension connection if you are experiencing issues with a website blocking the extension. Do be aware that requests made to websites found on the Bypass List use a direct connection that is not protected by PIA.
Smart Location:
With this feature, you can set any URL, that when visited, to connect to the server you have selected for its smart location, despite the current server you are connected to.
For example. You can be connected to Chicago but whenever you visit privateinternetaccess.com, the extension will automatically switch connections to Las Vegas. If you are on privateinternetaccess.com, that tab will be connected to Las Vegas. All other tabs will be connected to Chicago.
If you run into any issues or have any questions, please feel free to submit a ticket to our support team via the Contact Us tab above.