WebRTC is a technology that uses both the peer-to-peer and local network connections to provide real-time communications in various internet enabled apps and browsers. It is used extensively in apps for video conferencing, making voice calls over the internet (VoIP) and for P2P file sharing applications.
While WebRTC is very useful, it can be a problem if you are trying to use a VPN with the intent of hiding your online identity and gaining some privacy. Because of the way WebRTC works, it can bypass VPN and establish a direct connection with the remote server. This can expose your real IP address to any website even after you are using a VPN in the web browser.
Opera Crypto web browser comes with a VPN built-in but it also features WebRTC for various video conferencing applications and web apps. Fortunately, this browser offers an easy way to disable WebRTC direct connection.
Here is how we can quickly disable WebRTC direction connection in the Opera Crypto web browser:
- Launch Opera Crypto web browser and then click on its icon in the top-left corner of its window. When a meny appears, select Settings from there. Alternatively, you can also use the hotkey Alt+P.
- When the settings screen appears, search for WebRTC in the search box.
- In the WebRTC options, select Disable non-proxied UDP and then close the settings tab.
- After this WebRTC won’t be able to connect directly to the internet bypassing the VPN.
Disabling WebRTC in this manner is necessary if you are using a VPN that is built-in a web browser or through a VPN extension for the web browser. If you have installed a VPN software such as Proton VPN on your PC then it should be able to handle all kinds of connection and won’t let any WebRTC leaks to go through.