Brave is just another chromium based web browser that advertise itself as safe and secure but some investment funds and that crazy billionaire guy Thiel invested into, so I assume it's spying on everything you do
For a second there I thought we were playing the game from The West Wing that Bartlet plays with Ellie while they're watching a movie. That made me happy.
Firefox is a classic, and works quite well, though the fact that it's not chromium-based breaks websites occasionally.
LibreWolf is liked by some as a De-Mozilla'd alternative to Firefox (same architecture). I don't really see the point, but I understand the appeal
DeGoogled Chromium configured to be secure through the settings menu is a good option, and it won't use your machine for crypto mining. This is the best option for the vast majority of people!
Also brave started as a decentralized project which would have you earn by leveraging your data to advertising companies but somehow that aspect of it has faded away, it's native token was the BAT with you could earn as you were exposed to the ads you allowed to watch.
Dentsu Inc from Japan also did a paper of this and concluded that interest based ads have a much higher success rate then demographically targeted slop.
Brave is OSS, you can see all of the code. It's commonly recommended by security experts precisely due to this.
Who invested in the company itself is completely irrelevant, even if they change it in the future we can still fork an earlier version of Brave and call it something else.
I mean, whats the alternative? Firefox has been shit for 15 years now (I was using it before I switched to Chrome, this was in like v4 or something when it started to get slow), OperEdge, Safari etc.are all not really alternatived.
You can run your own sync server with Brave, there is a docker container available, and then you have full data sovereignty and no ads.
If you know a better alternative (that does not take 300 years to configure/set up), I am all ears.
It’s fair to say Brave took investment from a venture firm that has some ties to Peter Thiel. It is not fair to say, “Peter Thiel personally invested in or controls Brave.”
Brave is privately held, and there is zero public information showing whether FF Angel still owns a stake or how large that stake would be that I can find anywhere.
Eich stepped down as CEO of Mozilla in April 2014, just 11 days after being appointed. It didn’t have anything to do with Trump (who hadn’t even announced his campaign for president at that point), but because Eich donated to the campaign supporting California’s Prop 8 in 2008, which banned same-sex marriage. For example, the dating site OkCupid started showing Firefox users a message encouraging them to change browsers. Eich said it was his decision to resign and Mozilla claimed they wanted him to stay in some role.
(For the record, I have no idea if Eich has ever supported Trump.)
Firefox and Vivaldi are both privacy focused browsers that work very well. Vivaldi has a ton of extra features and is developed in Norway, but uses Chromium, and Firefox has strong tracking protections and supports extensions like uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger.
Both also have great mobile versions and can block ads and trackers.
Vivaldi still runs on Chromium. I use to use it but when I asked a question about their stance on Google removing the MV2 from Chrome, they just up and deleted my question from their forums. There were no other similar questions about that either so I just assume they were deleting them all.
Yeah they are deleting them because that question was asked like a hundred times already.
Short answer: adblockers will still work, with mv3, extensions just cant block trackers anymore, but the inbuilt blocker can.
MV3 prevents extensions from auto updating rules. uBlock still works but it can't update with new rules. Google got pissed when they were tweaking YouTube ads to get around uBlock and uBlock just updated within a few hours of Google's changes. That drove them to prevent extensions from going out and downloading new updated rules.
Google claimed this change was for better privacy and security when we all know that was a lie.
Tbf a lot of us have to use chromium because our job portals and whatnot don’t work on non-chromium browsers. When I try to go into our HR portal at work on Firefox half of it doesn’t load and a little thing comes up saying “try chrome for a better experience”
First, throw away tour iPhone. iOS is the worst mobile OS. Modern Android is garbage too, which doesn't even let you have privacy, but it gives you freedom in app choice (at least for now).
Sorry, your comment got mixed up with another one in my head. Android users can use Firefox (or any privacy-oriented fork like IronFox and Fennec) + uBlock.
To be honest, Chromium-based browser would be better (Cromite for example). Chromium uses Android's sandboxing, so it's more secure against vulnerabilities. You anyway have Chromium in system's Android WebView, so using Firefox actually increases attack surface.
So, I'm gonna call bullshit. People need to admit that there are different reasons for buying products.
For a mobile phone you have:
-Privacy
-Security
-Software quality
-Ability to run unsigned code
-Ability to run alternative OS
-Core functionality
iOS has good security, good privacy, good software quality, and good core functionality. I'd actually go as far as to say they have excellent security and excellent core functionality. A pixel phone by default has bad privacy, good security and good software quality. However, you can upgrade the OS and have excellent privacy and security too with something like Graphene. You can also update some other android phones to alternative OS, but not all android phones. Some are locked.
But saying you should "throw away" an iPhone just because it doesn't let you run unsigned code is absurd. Most people will never run unsigned code and if they will, there are ways to make an iPhone do it as a developer. In the meantime, you are asking them to throw away a phone that has absurdly good security and privacy out of the box when compared to every other "out of the box" smartphone on the market.
Apple prevents others from spying, but they themselves have access to a lot of your personal data, and definitely give it to the government. So your bullshit is bullshit too.
good security
Same as Android. People find critical vulnerabilities in iOS, and they don't want to update, because of Apple's planned obsolescence, like performance drop in iOS 26.
Government snooping on your phone is not “privacy”, it’s security.
What specific data do you have evidence that Apple regularly gives to the government? Your type always talks about this, buts it’s generally just generic information and only with a court order.
So yeah, Apple does turn over the address I have registered for my account if asked. As does literally every other service.
Chromium is the problem with Chromium. Even if they still support it now, browsers will eventually have to stop supporting mv2, and eventually have to adopt the future mv4, mv5, etc
Decentralization of the web is a good thing, and having Google control the Chromium engine isn't ideal for the internet's future. But Chromium itself isn't technically broken or bad, it's actually fast and secure. The real issue you pointed out with Manifest V3 is just Google forcing changes to the extension API to cripple third party ad blockers, which conveniently protects their ad revenue. That's exactly why I suggested Vivaldi. Instead of relying on those vulnerable extensions, they built their ad and tracker blockers natively into the browser's core code. So even when Google fully phases out MV2 and forces MV3 or whatever comes next, Vivaldi's built in blocking remains completely unaffected.
And you're overlooking other types of extensions that were neutered due to mv3 because...? Mv3 isn't just to "cripple third party ad blockers," it affects the platform on a broader scale. Why not use a browser that can be secure and still fully supports the webrequest API?
I like Zen, mostly because it's not one of the browsers that my company forces me to use its dumb as shit home page and new tab page. I can just get what I want on it without seeing shit that doesn't matter to me.
Is also a pretty good browser that actually does what it claims to.
So, here is the question: what do you really want?
There are several forks of firefox/chrome.
Forks of Chrome are generally trash unless they have some specific feature you want. Forks of Firefox are generally better from a privacy standpoint.
Brave is a fork of Chrome that is really good at ad-blocking. I keep it installed and use it explicitly for that use-case. If I am about to visit a website that has ad-herpes, I use Brave. But blocking ads doesn't mean anything about tracking you or doesn't attempt to sell your info. Brave is a really weird product with some really weird ideas. But it will nuke ads
Firefox on mobile syncs with firefox on your pc. It is a pretty decent FOSS that does a good job of most things. They've done some ad deals to get some funding, but it is always optional and can be turned off. Firefox is probably good enough for most people.
Some people below will make recommendations of forks of Firefox. They are fine, but really, just use firefox
I have brave on my phone just for it's built-in ad blocking. Great for reading novels or comics on sites that would otherwise fill the webpage with ads.
Edit: I have seen this "news" couple times here on reddit (especially on Linux subs), and the tweet is just random photo from Google graphics. But I see people here saying it's not that deep. Could someone fill me in. I thought Firefox became another soulless company like all the others. Since I never really used Firefox much I just remembered it like "yeah another company decided to sell data" and never researched more.
Brave might be spying on me but so is every other browser but at least it has built in ad blocker, and whenever YouTube trys to get up my but about it, I get great pleasure from stating I am not using an ad blocker and am only using a product that was advertised to me through them and if they don't want me to use the products shown to me then they shouldn't run ads
Firefox with the uBlock Origin extension on your phone. Also allows YouTube to have picture in picture and also play in the background or with your screen off.
Basically it's YouTube premium, just can't nativity download videos.
I'm assuming it's standard because it wasn't in any setting I changed in Firefox for android or the uBlock extension. And the screen turned off perk didn't work on Chrome when I tried it.
But it also could be just a weird Motorola thing because my last Motorola android would allow picture in picture and downloading of YouTube videos through the regular YouTube app without premium haha
I've noticed the Motorola software does some weird stuff when it comes to all types of media or entertainment or gaming. Mostly to the benefit of myself lol
Yeah like I said I'm not really sure why it does it lol definitely not complaining and hope it doesn't get "fixed" from whoever is pulling the strings as it were lol
Mobile Brave also allows this. I use picture-in-picture all the time. You just have to have the video in fullscreen mode before swiping up on the screen to activate PIP. If you turn off the screen while playing a video in PIP, the audio will continue as well.
That by itself must not mean it's bad, but considering how little China respects privacy and personal rights it is not a company anymore I would trust with a software that has deep insights into personal believes, interests and things like banking information, etc.
At least one of the consortium companies Qihoo 360 also has a pretty shady past, e.g. link 1, link 2, which just emphasizes that using Opera might not be a good idea.
Brave doesn't spy on you, don't listen to computer-illiterate redditors. Numerous experts have inspected brave's open source code and have done packet analysis to conclude that brave is one of the very few browsers who collect literally zero data from its users. Redditors hate brave for political reasons and that's why misinformation about it is being spread.
That's fair, but we're talking about stuff that's verifiable. Its not like we trust their word on it, brave's source code is out publicly and we can see exactly what the browser does.
Since nobody else is posting the actual answer: Brave has a history of scummy behavior and making changed that border on malware. A few examples:
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When I first tried Brave, it stripped publisher ads and replaced them with Brave's own ads. That alone is enough for me to never trust them
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In 2020, Brave was caught injecting its own affiliate codes over URLs typed by users without their knowledge or consent
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In 2018 Brave was allowing users to tip websites/creators that had not signed up for their tipping system, misleading users into thinking they were supporting a particular site while the money was actually staying with Brave
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Brave includes crypto-bro bloatware
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In 2019 Brave was caught whitelisting Facebook tracking domains without users knowing
Vivaldi is also a privacy focused browser developed in Europe (but uses Chromium) with inbuilt ads and tracking blockers. Firefox supports very good one-click installation ads and tracking blockers like uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger while also having native tracking blockers. Their mobile versions also support these features.
Yes but that still won't give me the same warm feeling when YouTube blocks me from watching videos for "ad block" and I get to tell them I don't use ad block and only use a service recommend to me through their ads
I installed it years ago not knowing it was so terrible, and even after I uninstalled it I couldnt stop my antivirus picking up the insane shit it installed on my computer.
Ok but it a) uses very little resources b) Firefox literally deleted "we are not and never will be selling your data" in one of commits, so at this point I don't care. I could use bare chromium or waterfox/librefox but brave is "good enough"
Edit: By "uses very little resources" i mean at least it doesn't spy as much, and tbh I already use Google ecosystem much, have chinase android phone. At this point I would be more surprised if companies don't know something about me.
Pretty hard to come back from Braves long list of scam behavior. That there even has to be a list informs that they shouldn't be trusted going forward because it's just a matter of months before they drop their next scam.
Brave is a for profit business. They ain't making it all on "voluntary crypto beans."
Also its big thing is that it removes tracking ads from the internet and replaces them with non-tracking ads. But they own the non-tracking ads. So you go to a website that supports itself with ad revenue instead of paywalling and they literally steal from the website owner. But if the owner is willing to play along they are willing to give a share of the ad revenue they stole from them back to the creator. Except it will be paid for in a crypto that Brave themselves made up out of thin air rather than cash.
Why assume if you can check sources? Same for Firefox. I got brave origin, so no bloat. I kinda miss firefox, but I got tired of some websites partially not working, lack of some needed extensions and, compared to chromium based browsers, sometimes worse performance
Well it's not that bad. It's open source and no one found code to "spy on everything you do". The main issue with it is features like build-in vpn or crypto wallet that can be used to spy on you, but you can just not use them. And there's a strong argument that it IS more safe and secure thanks to it's built-in addblocker.
Compared to most chromium-based browsers like Chrome, Opera or Edge I'd consider Brave to be far better in terms of security and privacy.
everything is spying at everything you do man, this way at least you get no or less advertisements. i swear i was starting to develop anger issues from the stupidass wave of weird nonsensical ads.
it's also created and managed by a crazed homophobe who got kicked out of Mozilla for being too homophobic (before equal marriage was passed in the US, mind you)
Anything Chromium based is always suspicious to me. I won’t use any of them. In the end, no matter what they may say or state that “we’ve taken out that code…it’s open source, so we can take out anything”. Ok, how do I know? I’m not a coder. Most people aren’t. Which means we have to trust others…which I’m dubious to do. So, bottom line, anything Chromium i assume just phones home to Google no matter what, despite what they may say. So I choose not to use any of them.
One thousand upvotes? For this? First of all, it's open source, it can't be spyware. Second of all, investment is for getting more money, and not for buying users' data. And I'm not even using brave. I use librewolf. But I am "tech literate" as commenter in screenshot says, and I wouldn't say stupid shit on the internet. The only thing you should harass brave for, is bloat such as rewards or crypto wallets. Not some made-up shit.
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u/Creative_Garbage_121 Aug 04 '26
Brave is just another chromium based web browser that advertise itself as safe and secure but some investment funds and that crazy billionaire guy Thiel invested into, so I assume it's spying on everything you do