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.

  • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

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

    • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      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@pawb.social
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        9 months ago

        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.

          • Katlah@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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            9 months ago

            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.

            • fatbeer@reddthat.com
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              9 months ago

              As I stated in a previous post, I am using AdGuard on safari. And since I’ve basically given up on privacy, I also use Brave at times.

            • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              9 months ago

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

              • Katlah@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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                9 months ago

                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@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              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.

  • Skimmer@lemmy.zip
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    9 months ago

    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.

    • Katlah@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      9 months ago

      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.

          • g0nz0li0@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            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.

  • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

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

  • AphoticDev@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    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.

    • Katlah@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • AOCapitulator [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        9 months ago

        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!

      • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        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.

        • Katlah@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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          9 months ago

          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@mander.xyz
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            2 months ago

            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.)

      • Helmic [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        9 months ago

        aren’t you on a fucking anarchist instance, ding dong? shut the fuck up, we don’t do “apolitical” theatrics here.

  • Katlah@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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    9 months ago

    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.

  • DigitalJacobin@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    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.

  • PlatypusXray@feddit.de
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    9 months ago

    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.

    • Katlah@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      9 months ago

      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.