this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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Privacy

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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Please, do not use Brave. (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by eya@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 

I have seen many people in this community either talking about switching to Brave, or people who are actively using Brave. I would like to remind people that Brave browser (and by extension their search engine) is not privacy-centric whatsoever.

Brave was already ousted as spyware in the past and the company has made many decisions that are questionable at best. For example, Brave made a cryptocurrency which they then added to a rewards program that is built into the browser to encourage you to enable ads that are controlled by Brave.

Edit: Please be aware that the spyware article on Brave (and the rest of the browsers on the site) is outdated and may not reflect the browser as it is today.

After creating this cryptocurrency and rewards program, they started inserting affiliate codes into URL's. Prior to this they had faked fundraising for popular social media creators.

Do these decisions seem like ones a company that cares about their users (and by extension their privacy) would make? I'd say the answer is a very clear no.

One last thing, Brave illegally promoted an eToro affiliate program making a fortune from its users who will likely lose their money.

Edit: To the people commenting saying how Brave has a good out-of-the-box experience compared to other browsers, yes, it does. However, this is not a warning for your average person, this is a warning for people who actively care about their privacy and don't mind configuring their browser to maximize said privacy.

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[โ€“] fl42v@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Startpage is "cool" as long as you're not using a proxy/VPN, and otherwise they tell you to GTFO (without an opportunity to complete a capcha or smth). Even more, they can tell you the very same thing if you're sharing a connection with lots of ppl (e.g. a dorm or a public WiFi, probably). Finally, (heard it from surveillance report, but didn't care to check myself since I've stopped using them 'cause of proxies long before) they don't interact with journalists, and there's not much known about their parent company

[โ€“] Ozzy@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

oh shit, I wasn't aware of that drama, thanks for sharing the info