this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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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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[–] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Just disable the ads, crypto and telemetry and suddenly none of those things are a problem anymore, just like Firefox.

[–] ilikekeyboards@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It still uses chromium and it's susceptible to the Google's Web integrity protocols. An website using the new protocols can refuse to load on your browser if you don't accept the ads. Why is it so difficult to comprehend?

[–] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It still uses chromium

I'm not sure what that means. It doesn't "use Chromium", it is a fork of Chromium.

it's susceptible to the Google's Web integrity protocols

No. It isn't. You're thinking of Chrome. Don't know how many times I can say this but Chromium forks are not Chrome.

An website using the new protocols can refuse to load on your browser if you don't accept the ads.

...huh?

Why is it so difficult to comprehend?

Because it makes zero sense.

[–] eya@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Using a fork of Chromium is still using Chromium, and still helping Google's dominance in the browser market. Using forks of Chromium is still supporting Google in the same way using forks of Firefox is still supporting Mozilla.

[–] 0x2d@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

its still vulnerable to web environment integrity

brave has announced they will not be including WEI

but that still doesn't change the fact that brave sucks

[–] ilikekeyboards@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

For now. After more and more websites break down, they will comply or start to lose people

[–] Number1SummerJam@lemmy.world -4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It has tor built in if you're concerned about that

[–] 0x2d@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

firefox doesn't have any crypto bs?

[–] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

No but it does have telemetry.