A VPN is basically a way to establish a private network within or on top of a public network, allowing users to protect their data and identity/location, block ads, thwart cookies, circumvent geo-restrictions, and secure wireless transactions.

Opera’s VPN is operated by SurfEasy, a VPN service acquired by Opera in March; it can route traffic through the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany and Singapore.

The app is being offered for free—a big differentiator from other VPNs available on the market today—but Opera plans to introduce advertising and anonymous data collection to help monetize the service, according to a blog post on SurfEasy’s Web site.

The data collection won’t include any personally identifiable information (PII) and doesn’t ask for any, but for those users who feel their privacy is paramount may find one of the paid services available to be a better option.

SurfEasy will continue to offer its paid service for those users uncomfortable with their data being collected and monetized.

Opera has been on something of a privacy bender in the last few months, releasing a built-in ad-blocker for its desktop and phone apps, in addition to the VPN it released for desktop users.

According to the SurfEasy blog, it has plans to publish more information on apps and sites’ rampant unencrypted exchange of personal information through the Internet later this year.