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Please, do not use Brave.

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.

DigitalJacobin ,

There are many, many good reasons to not use Brave. Being spyware is not one of those.

Boycott Brave for real reasons like their CEO and owner being a raging anti-gay reactionary or because of their cryptocurrency bs.

asphalt ,

Those are good reasons and it's sad to see so many downvotes on a community that should know better :/

amir_s89 ,
@amir_s89@lemmy.ml avatar

How about the Opera Browser?

sleepybisexual ,
@sleepybisexual@beehaw.org avatar

Don't touch opera, avoid it like the plague

amir_s89 ,
@amir_s89@lemmy.ml avatar

I have installed it on all my devices. Firefox is standard from now, becouse of its open source culture etc.

HughJanus ,

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

Omega_Haxors ,

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

eya OP ,

He's not a pedophile, but he's also not the great.

Omega_Haxors ,

Are you kidding? He's the exact kind of guy who would do that sort of thing.

eya OP ,

Calling people pedophiles for being homophobic is a bit of a stretch.

Skimmer ,
@Skimmer@lemmy.zip avatar

Brave is not spyware. That website you linked is horrible and full of misinformation. They also claim that Firefox, and even Tor Browser, are spyware. They act as if any and all connections a browser makes are automatically bad and used for spying/tracking.

I won't disagree with the other criticisms of Brave that you made, but just wanted to point that out. That website is just highly unreliable and makes verifiably false claims about the browsers it reviews.

eya OP ,

Just commenting to let you know I've clarified a bit in the post. Also, stock Firefox is spyware so.

Stock as in out-of-the-box.

Edit: If you want to downvote this go ahead, but at least know that it's true. Without changing ANY settings, Firefox is spyware.

SecretPancake ,

Never heard of that. Please do not just claim things without clarifying.

eya OP ,

It's a well known fact that Firefox is full of telemetry that you need to turn off. There's a reason for so many user.js files and forks existing.

g0nz0li0 ,

Using the terms "telemetry" and "spyware" interchangeably makes the former seem more nefarious and the latter less nefarious. I understand where you're coming from but I wouldn't want to see the term "spyware" diluted to include anonymised data about how users are using product features.

That's not to say telemetry data is fine or that a company might claim to only use telemetry data isn't actually using spyware.

entropie ,

Just stop giving any advice please.

possiblylinux127 ,
@possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

Brave is better than chrome ans I'm glad we have alternatives.

woodgen ,

Guess what, Firefox also gets the same score on ghis site :)

https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/firefox

Also they both seem to be the better option to Chrome
https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/chrome

Not sure if this score applies to vanilla Chromium.

AphoticDev ,
@AphoticDev@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Let's not forget one of the biggest investors is a right-wing billionaire who runs a corporate intelligence agency that contracts with the DoD. And the only proof we have that he doesn't collect data on Brave's users is the questionable word of the devs.

eya OP ,

I would appreciate if we don't bring politics into the conversation. They are completely subjective and only serve to stray away from the original point.

Edit:

Yes, I'm aware I'm in the wrong here.

SkyeStarfall ,

Privacy is a political subject.

TheAnonymouseJoker Mod ,

Free software movement itself is political. If you use FOSS, you are political.

AphoticDev ,
@AphoticDev@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I would appreciate it if conservatives stopped trying to strip away our rights, including the right to privacy.

AOCapitulator ,
@AOCapitulator@hexbear.net avatar

untrue, politics affects the shape of everything, if we don't 'make it political' we let whatever political lean already is there continue. thats not apolitical, thats apathy

that said thanks for the post, good to know!

silent_water ,
@silent_water@hexbear.net avatar

how can privacy ever be stripped of political content? it's inherently about social forces - ie politics.

combat_brandonism ,

smuglord

xantoxis ,

If you know you're in the wrong, delete the comment, or at least strikethrough everything you have changed your mind about.

The people who downvoted you have already moved on, they don't need or care about an apology and won't see it.

eya OP ,

I won't delete the comment as that also deletes (not really but hides) the replies. As for strikethrough, I don't really think it matters that much.

Kissaki ,

I don’t really think it matters that much

When I read your comment I couldn't see what specifically you consider yourself being wrong about. Striking through could have clarified. Without it, I would have preferred the comment as it was. Then it at least makes sense within the thread and makes a clear statement. (Whether one agrees with it or not.)

Zikeji ,
@Zikeji@programming.dev avatar

Brave has been off limits for me ever since I saw my QAnon nutjob father using it lol.

aaathats3as ,

That's dumb.

Would you stop drinking water just because Hitler drank it too?

AlexWIWA ,

Brave is literally a grift. Too many people are falling for it.

Emprx ,

I turn on youtube and see no ads

eya OP ,

Just use uBlock Origin.

fatbeer ,

What are the better solutions for iOS users?

eya OP ,

As I stated in a previous post, if you are using an iPhone you've basically given up on having privacy. For ad blockers you could use AdGuard and Safari, it's better than nothing. You could also use something like Mullvad VPN, it has DNS ad blocking.

Rai ,

That’s the most ridiculous statement I’ve seen today. iOS has infinitely better privacy than Android lawl

eya OP ,

An iPhone is a give-up on privacy because you don't get alternatives. If you don't like your stock OS on an Android phone you can just switch OS (for example GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, ect.). If you don't like the normal YouTube app you can just sideload a different one. You don't get this kind of freedom with an iPhone. A prime example of this is when, during the Hong Kong Riots where Apple pulled an app that assisted protesters.

deweydecibel ,

Too many people only care about the openweb or shitty companies in the comments. They have no fucking willpower, no patience, and no follow through. Their complaints are utterly meaningless because they utterly refuse to stick to their guns.

There's one and literally only one browser that actually stands for all the things the most vocal people around here claim to care about.

Yet, they use Brave.

amju_wolf ,
@amju_wolf@pawb.social avatar

Ehh there is only so much a single person can care about. If you have a life and aren't effectively an activist/lobbyis by profession you can't care about politics both local and global, preserving nature and ecolody, world hunger & disease, and a million other things like which software company is less evil all at once and follow through 100%, supporting all of the causes meaningfully.

Not to mention we have to make compromises, too.

There’s one and literally only one browser that actually stands for all the things the most vocal people around here claim to care about.

Hard disagree. Firefox had its fair share of controversies, it's still technically funded by Google (while not accepting donations), and Mozilla Foundation as a nonprofit is pretty questionable too.

The leadership of Mozilla Corporation is shit too like any other corp; they lay off engineers and give themselves huge bonuses.

It takes them years to even acknowledge simple bugs, let alone actually getting to fix them.

A huge part of why Firefox lost the "browser wars" is also that they failed to make it easy to build into other apps so it could work more like Electron, while also pissing off users with surface changes that break their workflow.

Overall it's better than Chrome especially if you care about privacy, but it's not a huge win.

HughJanus ,

Yet, they use Brave. Chrome

FTFY

PlatypusXray ,

Oh no, a shady, unknown neocities site is telling me to not trust my browser!
Yes, I can use Firefox, uBlock and uMatrix, except on iOS, where I can’t do that, and that is where Brave does a good job.
I am really tired of those „Brave baaad“ posts. Look guys, unless you are using Linux you might want to direct your attention at the huge, morally flexible company that does collect your data, no matter what browser you choose.

eya OP ,

a shady, unknown neocities site is telling me to not trust my browser

Spyware Watchdog has been a resource for checking browser's for a very long time. It's not longer maintained, which is why I said "in the past".

uMatrix

The fact you even bring up this dead extension...

except on iOS, where I can’t do that

You can use AdGuard and Safari, but if you're on iOS you've already given up any semblance of privacy in the first place.

eya OP ,

For the comments, can anyone give me an actual reason to use Brave over Firefox (and it's forks)? I guess the cryptocurrency aspect is a reason, but I wouldn't say it's a very good one.

stifle867 ,

That's actually one of the reasons I do not use Brave.

gogosempai ,
@gogosempai@programming.dev avatar

On iOS, unlike Android, Firefox doesn't come with extensions. No ads are blocked. Even if I use Safari and Adguard extension, it doesn't block YouTube ads. Brave works like a charm in this regard. I've opted out of all telemetry stuff that I could find, and btw even Firefox opts into everything by default. Any other open source browser you can suggest that blocks ads including YouTube on iOS?

eya OP ,

On iOS use Orion Browser by Kagi. As for blocking ads in YouTube, you can use AltStore to sideload a YouTube app with sponsorblock and ad block built in.

(Orion might block YouTube ads, I haven't tested it)

whysofurious ,
@whysofurious@sopuli.xyz avatar

I can confirm Orion blocks Youtube ads (might need to tweak options). As for youtube app, no need to sideload anything, Yattee is on the app store and on testflight for betas (https://github.com/yattee/yattee/wiki/Installation-Instructions)

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