this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2025
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Privacy

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Isn't brave supposed to be "private"? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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Saw this in my adguard home query logs.

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[–] dangrousperson@feddit.org 59 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

From Wiki:

Brave Software was founded in 2015 by Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and former Mozilla CEO who left the organization after coming under fire for his support of eliminating the right of same-sex couples to marry [...]

and

In August 2016, the company had received at least US$7 million in angel investments from venture capital firms, including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund [...]

Should tell you everything you need to know.

I'd say being 'privacy focused' is just a stick to get non-tech savy/gullible people that want to protect their privacy to use it, without thinking about it twice. Personally, I believe there is 0% chance they don't sell (or simply give) all data they can to Peter Thiel and Palantir.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 17 points 6 days ago

....also to Facebook, also one of the investors. Brave has good privacy protections, but they are selective.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 65 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Brave is a scam.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 17 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I've never really had a comfortable feeling about Brave. I have no substantiating evidence, it just seems a bit squirrely. Besides the Tor browser, LibreWolf, Waterfox, and FireFox are the only acceptable browsers as far as I'm concerned, tho I don't come down on those seeking an alternative to Google Chrome.

[–] erock@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

Librefox has been awesome. Once you get the hang of enabling cookies for specific sites it mostly just works. Although Fastmail keeps logging me out for some reason

[–] luipaard0011@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Any alternative to brave in iOS with adblocker? (I know, probably use another OS)

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 11 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Far as I remember any browser in iOS is a scam anyways because Apple forces any browser in their platform to be based off of the same engine as Safari.

[–] luipaard0011@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago

Yea, fuck webkit

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

AFAIK at least in the EU because have to admit also browsers with a different engine as WebKit. WebKit is same as Blink a fork from the KHTML engine by KDE, butway less advanced as Blink or Gecko, who outscore WebKit in modern webformats. This is why Apple don't want other browsers which make Safari obsolete. Anyway, sooner or later Safari will be the next IE.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Sooner or later? They already are lol

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago

Yes, but I won't be so harsh

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 days ago

Vivaldi for iOS, it has an inbuild ad- and trackerblocker

[–] double_oh_walter@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago

Orion can use Chrome and Firefox plugins. Works great!

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

General practice, I do not use my phone as a compute platform. I realize others cannot do the same all the time. I do run firefox and a VPN which has an adblocker as part of it's tool set.

[–] DieserTypMatthias@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 days ago

Try to disable telemetry.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 43 points 6 days ago

no, brave is just another crypto scam

[–] mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 6 days ago

Brave is like the ExpressVPN of browsers

[–] Core_of_Arden@lemmy.ml 27 points 6 days ago (1 children)

People sadly believe so. Firefox, a few addons and you are good to go.

[–] FuckBigTech347@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 6 days ago

It boggles my mind how people still recommend Brave as a good browser for privacy.
The entire point of Brave from the beginning was their own Crypto currency that they wanted to shill.
In their early days they offered a bunch of Tech YouTubers some crypto (via affiliate links) in return for them shilling brave.

Brave is basically just yet another Chromium reskin with custom branding, extra tracking and crypto bullshit bolted to it.
No, the builtin AdBlocker does not make it "worth it". Stop recommending this pile of crap.

[–] FacelessOnes@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

Haha

[–] kepix@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago

even tho most low level searches and recommendations gonna point towards brave as the private browser, all you need to just look at the options. its datafarming, its running in the background randomly, its an nftbro chrome.

[–] wolfiedafloof@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

I tend to recommend Brave for the ones who aren't technically savvy. For that, its good.

For me who is really into privacy, I've always felt uncomfortable with brave or any chrome based browser. So I go with TOR and LibreWolf

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I use Vivaldi, it's IMHO the only decent Chromium browser, apart European, with a good privacy, no logs, no tracking no third party investors. great services and community.

[–] mugita_sokiovt@discuss.online 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I think Vivaldi is source-available, but it's proprietary otherwise due to a BSD license that allows for source-availability.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Yes, it's proprietary because some script parts are. It's not so easy to go full OpenSource for an Chromium browser which is more an online suite than a simple browser, because Google and M$ will kill to be able to fork it for Chrome and EDGE, which will have catastrophic aftermaths for all other Chromium browsers, include Vivaldi. Way easier to be OpenSource for simpler Chromium or Gecko forks. Anyway I think in a market saturated with browsers (over 100 different), beeing OpenSource isn't in the main interest for the user anymore, prevailing more the ethics and transparency of the manufactor, 100% given in Vivaldi. Apart, as say, it's the only decent browser from the EU on level eye with the US big Brother browsers. Alternatively there is Mullvad, butit is , apart of the privacy features, a very basic browser, more an platform for the Mullvad VPN, no own sync, only with Mozilla, Konqueror with the KHTML engine by KDE is discontinued, same as sadly the French UR browser. Thats it.

[–] WilliamA@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 6 days ago

Any decent person wouldn't use brave.

https://www.christiantoday.com.au/news/former-mozilla-ceo-ousted-for-opposing-gay-marriage-makes-comeback-with-new-internet-browser-brave.html this is who you're supporting.

[–] Xylight@lemdro.id 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (6 children)

What browser should I use on mobile? I use Librewolf on desktop since it runs fine, and the vertical tabs are great, and it looks nice.

On mobile though there's a lot of problems with the browser space:

  • Chrome: runs great but is obviously not good for privacy
  • Firefox: what most people recommend, but it has terrible performance, looks not great, and doesn't even have more than basic fingerprinting protection, and literally includes ads by default. It's also less secure on Android because they don't do per site process isolation, and the memory allocator is worse.
  • Brave: people tend to dislike brave here, but it runs well (since it's chromium based) and has at least better fingerprinting protection.

What other options are there?

[–] nonagonOrc@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Tbh firefox performs great and works for me, and its issues can be fixed with extensions and settings, both on desktop and mobile. I never looked for anything else myself. I also like to use a browser that is not chromium-based, I do not want google to have the monopoly.

maybe I am just not picky, but if you need more privacy than what can be achieved with a hardened firefox config you might be better off using TOR at that point.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Maybe somewhat later the Helium Browser (still not for mobile, in Alpha version), ungoogled Chromium, if not, Vivaldi, for all platforms, even as automotive app, (the only one)

https://github.com/imputnet/helium

[–] starchylemming@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

hmmm

i never get the performance part.

what the fuck are you doing where you can even notice performance differences?

nobody should use vanilla firefox. the extensions are the vital part of it

[–] mudkip@lemdro.id 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Safari

[–] Xylight@lemdro.id 1 points 4 days ago

yeah lemme just pull out safari on android and linux for its insane fingerprinting protection and great content blocking support

[–] TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz 0 points 5 days ago

IronFox, Fennec Fox

[–] mugita_sokiovt@discuss.online 2 points 6 days ago

I think you can disable the telemetry in the Brave settings. Maybe try that. Otherwise, if that doesn't work, your best bet is something Firefox-based if you're on desktop (hardened to the nines, with uBO, LibRedirect and an email aliasing service extension like SimpleLogin). If on mobile, there are other Webkit browsers like Snowhaze and Orion that are pretty good.

[–] 68silver@beehaw.org 0 points 6 days ago

You can stop it in settings just like any other browser. I still will use Brave as my choice of browsers.

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