this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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Privacy

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It's true that it does display ads, and there are links to several cryptocurrency services. They're "safe" ads, and you can turn them off.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just check the post of the last week or so. Feels like there are plenty about brave.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

At this point someone might as well go ahead and set up a bot to post a daily “why u no like Brave?!” Megathread.

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

Weren't there a few privacy guides out there recommending it not too long ago?

I've read why people don't like it and I get it. I never used it myself. But I feel like some people in the privacy space were

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop-browsers/#brave

Brave does get a mention in privacy guides, but the recommended configuration has you manually turning everything off. Think of that what you will

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Personally it doesn't bother me a ton. I feel like I am either doing that or using a fork of something else

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, it's a bit annoying. A megathread about the the best privacy focused search engine would be a thing too. :D

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are already too many threads about Brave's shitty behavior. Go and read them.

They're "safe" ads, and you can turn them off.

Can I turn off all the astroturfing Brave is doing here? Those are ads too, you know.

As a brave employee, do you get paid in fiat currency or are they scamming you with worthless BAT?

Also, 'safe' ads 🤡

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's got crypto, scammy stuff built it

They tout themselves as being a private browser but also harvest a lot of your data

Last I used it the browser was also kind of glitchy

They're chromium so they're still bound by the whims of Google anyway

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@candyman337 @Albin9326 what browser do you use? Hardened Firefox or some variant of it?

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

I'm not SUPER concerned about privacy tbh, I mean I care about it, but I'll make some concessions for the sake of convenience, like in the form of a mozilla account to transfer settings and addon's between computers. So I probably wouldn't be a good example, but I use waterfox, it recently just went independent after being bought by a company awhile back, and I like it. But if you're looking for a privacy/security focused browser librefox I hear is a good one. It's based on firefox and has a lot of security features built in by default.

If you're looking for a VPN solution I highly recommend mullvad vpn, super secure, makes an effort to respect your privacy, and is genuinely one of the fastest vpns I've used.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can you elaborate on the harvesting of data? I haven’t heard that part before and would like to learn more.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

cryptocurrency bullshit built in

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you advertise yourself as a "privacy browser" then you need to have absolutely spotless track record. Brave doesn't, so even if their browser is objectively good, I just don't care. They have demonstrated that they can't be trusted and that why I'll stick with Firefox.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why do you care what we think about brave? if you like it and it works for you, use it.

Clearly you understand the misaligned incentives and the bad reputation they have.

Just because the Lemmy techologists won't recommend it doesn't mean it can't be great for you.

For the record: I promote Mullvad browser when people ask for recommendations, brave doesn't even enter into the conversation.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly if you must have a chromium browser use Vivaldi, otherwise use Firefox. There is no reason to use brave whatsoever.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Vivaldi is absolute spyware. And firefox have bugs that isn't solved yet.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

All software has bugs, it's literally impossible to have any program that does anything meaningful that is bug free.

Why ask our opinions if you already made up your mind? If your trying to make us think Brave is great, this isn't the way to do it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I'm surprised to hear that Brave is bug-free. Ads and crypto scam are doing miracles!

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

Anyone who just casually adds their own affiliate links without asking is not your friend. All they had to do was ask. Consent is easy. https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21283769/brave-browser-affiliate-links-crypto-privacy-ceo-apology

The CEO is also known to be homophobic, has some ties with some far right chat boards, and has been resistant to privacy checkups/audits, which is a red flag on its own. I wont post links, but there are plenty of threads here and on other forum/aggregator sites where they can be found. These points are obviously something that is less about the browser itself and more the people running it, but if the people running a project are untrustworthy or exhibit behaviors that are exclusionary, one has to consider using or supporting their products.