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 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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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[–] Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca -2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

If people want to use Brave, or Windows, or install screen doors on their submarines who am I to complain?

The fact is for a lot of people, Brave offers a superior out of box experience compared to firefox or almost any other browser. In terms of ad blocking, speed and ease of use, it's pretty much second to none. The fact that you install it and go is really appealing and how easy they make the slider to adjust the aggressiveness of the script blocking is great ui that my dad mother could use.

Yes, the company isn't very good, it's headed by a guy with a questionable history and has a poor track record when it comes to monetization strategy. I stopped using Brave this year, but for ages it was my goto because I could just install it and have an improved web experience.

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[–] Stahlreck@feddit.ch -3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

Does this all matter though? Afaik the browser if fully open source, even the crypto stuff so all the shady stuff would be detected (and has as in your examples). Like all of the issues you linked at this point are years in the past. I don't use Brave personally but it being completely FOSS is a huge plus even if the company itself might be weird. On the other hand you have something like Vivaldi that looks like "the good guys" but you'll always have to trust them as well because they're not fully open source.

I use FF but you just cannot deny that using a Chromium based browser has many security advantages over Gecko, especially on mobile. I takes Mozilla seemingly years and years to implement security features like Chromium. They don't put the necessary priority behind this.

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[–] Gooey0210@sh.itjust.works -3 points 2 years ago (4 children)
  1. I use brave on android, because there's not much choice. I really-really-really loved bromite, but noupdatess for like a year Recently I found out there's cromite so I think i will check that one out
  2. On desktop I use librewolf, only
  3. For any people using google chrome/yandex/edge/opera I install brave and disable all the crypto/advertising/crap. It would be nice to have a script that does it automatically. Or another browser that just doesn't have that
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[–] nothingness@lemmy.world -4 points 2 years ago
[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml -4 points 2 years ago (13 children)

All you need to know is the Brave guy is a pedophile who is 100% using your ad revenue to buy csam.

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[–] synceDD@lemmy.world -5 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Idc about their money ventures, I dont give them any money because I am not a complete moron, their product works, I use it. If the morons fall for it, their problem

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[–] meiko60@lemmy.sdf.org -5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Brave support PWA. but, Firefox don't. So, here is the answer

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[–] KickMe@programming.dev -5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Let's be real here for just a minute. The only actual reason people here hate Brave is because the founder personally believes in traditional marriage.

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