this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
1590 points (91.6% liked)

Privacy

31809 readers
330 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

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.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
1590
Please, do not use Brave. (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Someone mentioned Firefox Focus.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Not on iOS. Every browser on iOS is effectively just a skin for safari. There is no true Firefox for iPhone, or chrome for that matter.

If you're using an iPhone, you willingly surrendered your freedom of choice. This is what you paid for.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Firefox focus blocks ads on YouTube.

Safari with Wipr does not.

I know because I have them both. I use them for different things.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Won't be the case for much longer if the EU gets their way, I'm glad to say.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Something unique about the Brave browser is that it allows me to use filter lists to block ads. I can insert my own custom lists too which is cool.

I haven’t found another browser that allows this on iOS (other than safari with extensions).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Doesn't Firefox support extensions on iOS? I'm on Android and I'm currently using uBlock Origin and Dark Reader. I also use Lemmy through it, seems to work quite well.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Nope, no extensions for Firefox on iOS unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Firefox focus doesn’t seem to save open windows, it’s a purely incognito browser. & you can only have one page open at a time.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You're right about the first part; it's an incognito, tracker & ad blocking browser that clears your history and everything every time you close it... but if you long press on a link, you can open it in a new tab. Multiple, even. There's just no option I've found to open a blank new tab and navigate to a website that way. So I totally understand why you'd think that!

(I hope this doesn't come off as pedantic or rude or anything. That's definitely not my intention here - I just want people to be able to make informed decisions with correct information, ya feel?)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Focus does indeed block YT ads!

Even safari with Wipr does not. Though it is amazing for everything else.