this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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Privacy

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Please, do not use Brave. (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

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.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I see this exact thread every week now and it's between the same people:

"Oh ok i stopped using it" to "Naw i'll keep using brave"

At this point can we stop this? Brave is trash but people are either too stubborn or just don't care anymore (which is ironic). Either mods just pin this thread and treat this as a "brave is trash" megathread or I don't know.

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

I made this post because people in this community were suggesting Brave as a privacy focused browser. As far as I'm aware, no other post like this exists in this community specifically.

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

Fair enough. I respect the response. I've just been seeing some of the same threads throughout my time on lemmy and its essientially the same responses generally from brave users (which is their choice). Its not fully a waste but at this point the mods should just pin this thread.

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

I don't think this thread is detailed enough to be pinned, but thanks.

[–] Snapz 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This response is an "I got mine, now let's move on" style selfish whine... There are people beyond yourself who haven't seen it AND each time this conversation happens, more people realize they don't want to support that bullshit and they leave brave.

Scroll past the post and be happy it's there for those who need it, buddy!

Thanks for the post, OP.

[–] Wogi 1 points 1 year ago

This is the first I'm hearing about brave being sketchy, and I use brave on the daily.

So uh.. I guess what's a good adblock browser for Android?

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

Then like I said, you can ask the mods to pin this if its so essiential to post this every week and to see the same discussion points as well. Keep it to one megathread or this becomes an excuse to karma farm.