this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
11 points (82.4% liked)

Explain Like I'm Five

14457 readers
3 users here now

Simplifying Complexity, One Answer at a Time!

Rules

  1. Be respectful and inclusive.
  2. No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
  3. Engage in constructive discussions.
  4. Share relevant content.
  5. Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
  6. Use appropriate language and tone.
  7. Report violations.
  8. Foster a continuous learning environment.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Rikudou_Sage
[email protected]
sabbah
AradFort
Don_Dickle
11
What specific things are wrong with my installed copy of Brave (programming.dev)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/explainlikeimfive
11 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I use manjaro linux and I installed brave using the AUR repo. I keep hearing stories about how Brave is just another ad tracking software like Chrome. What I don't understand is why, like specifically.

Because I downloaded Brave from here. The code for Brave is here. I can build and install Brave and it will be the same as from AUR right?

Ok let me list my questions:

  1. If the sourcecode for Brave is open and is all I need to compile and run the software then where's the tracker. The code base is honestly to big and high level for me and my professional abilities but I'm not that great of a programmer, I'm just really good. If there are ad trackers or adblock-blockers then I should beable to see it in the code right? I just need help actually seeing these lines of code.
  2. I've used wireshark to monitor Brave in isolation and I couldn't see traffic that I would disapprove of. It is also very realistic that I just don't know how to recognize.
  3. Just because Google maintains chromium doesn't mean that chromium browsers have to track you. Chromium is opensource and it shouldn't cost much to comment out trackers. So wasn't this already done? And if not can we actually see the lines of code that track us?

Really what I'm looking for is help coming to the conclusion that these browsers are that bad for me myself.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Dang, I guess this would take an organized effort to code review every FAANG supported opensource project, but this is another thing I keep hearing and I want to discuss.

Usage of any chromium probably aids Google’s web takeover in someway or another.

Why?

Linus Torvald doesn't "take over" 95% of all computers on the internet. And why, because he can't. He can push a change to the linux repo to collect telemetry and show an ad whenever a command finishes. He's allowed to do that, there's no rule against it (AFAIK & "in-general").

Google can push whatever telemetry collecting code they want to the chromium repo. They're allowed to do that, there's no rule against it (AFAIK & "in-general").

Nobody has to take those changes.

None of the major distros have to take Linus's telemetry collecting changes, and no chromium browser has to take Google's telemetry collecting changes. Thats the thing about opensource, its that once you publish something with an open-source license you also give up authority to decide what direction it goes, sure you can want everybody to use your code with your special feature that only benefits you. You can want whatever you want. Nobody has to do what you want to in the opensource community, and nobody is gonna take changes from Google which include adblocker-blockers, telemetry trackers, or DRM systems. Opensource is pretty much already federated, just fork a repo and take pull requests to your own standard, your allowed to do that.

Think about it like this: why would Microsoft (Google's competetor) use chromium for their own closed source proprietary browser that they designed to make a profit for them?