this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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Privacy

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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Please, do not use Brave. (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by eya@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 

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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[–] CatsGoMOW@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It’s not something the average person can or will do, but if you’re so inclined you can run Pi-Hole or AdGuard Home and have all your iOS devices go through it.

I even set up a VPN for when I’m away from home that I can connect to and get routed through my home internet connection which gives me ad blocking on the go.

Or if you want a simpler answer, look into using the AdGuard app on your iOS device.

[–] fatbeer@reddthat.com 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks I didn’t know you could do this with pi-hole. I’m currently testing out AdGuard but it seems you have to turn it on every time you open a new yt vid

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago

PiHole cannot block YT ads.

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

PiHole does not block YouTube ads.

[–] CatsGoMOW@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I haven’t used Pi-Hole in a long time to know that, but I don’t seem to have any issue with them using AdGuard Home.

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

AdGuard may work! PiHole has never blocked YT ads tho :c