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You need to stop using Brave (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by FG_3479@lemmy.world to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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Brave is essentially just Chrome with an adblocker, a bunch of bloatware, and a bunch of controversies.

Brave took BAT donations in YouTuber's names without their consent, with them keeping the money if the YouTubers didn't claim it. https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2019/01/13/brave-web-browser-no-longer-claims-to-fundraise-on-behalf-of-others-so-thats-nice/

Brave's search engine crawler hides itself from websites by pretending to be Googlebot, and Meta (Facebook) buys API access from them to train their AI. https://stackdiary.com/brave-selling-copyrighted-data-for-ai-training/

The business model of Brave rewards as a whole is to block all other ad networks to replace them with their own, which is unfair as only YouTubers and websites that have joined can make money from most Brave users.

If Brave actually cared, they would create an acceptable ads style feature which was free for everyone and allowed simple contextual banners while blocking ads which track you, take up most of the page, or have NSFW content.

Their approach is monopolistic as they have full control and can strangle YouTubers and websites by dropping pay at any time.

And Brenden Eich has said on Twitter that he plans to release "Brave Origin", which is a paid version of Brave without the bloatware. That name is ironic as he is admitting that his browser is commercialised and bloated, which is similar to when gorhill gave uBlock way to Chris Aljoudi who commercialised it, which led him to create uBlock Origin.

If you use Brave, ditch it and look at using Librewolf or Helium instead, which both include no ads nor tracking and don't have Brave News, Rewards, Wallet, Talk etc bloatware.

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[-] Zerush@lemmy.ml 3 points 8 months ago

I use Vivaldi and Zen

[-] observantTrapezium@lemmy.ca 3 points 8 months ago

Agree except that having your web crawler hiding itself by pretending to be Googlebot is bad. Preferable to Google search monopoly. For search, Brave is not actually a terrible option (but I won't touch the browser with a 3 metre pole)

[-] Nastybutler@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

[-] pineapple@lemmy.ml 3 points 8 months ago

But brave still has the best fingerprint resistance of any browser. Except for tor which is too slow for me. If mullvad browser ever gets on android I will use that, for now I will use brave.

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[-] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

If you’re a browser with an ad company, you are the problem and can fuck right off.

[-] KhantoBlackhand@lemmy.today 3 points 8 months ago

For all my folks on android a really good chromium browser would be Cromite which is a fork of Bromite a really good privacy browser. I use it with Kagi as my search engine and it works so well for me.

For FF, I used IronFox for a bit. But it had issues with using alternative search engines as defaults. But it's still a solid browser.

I recommend using the TOR browser as a heavy security measure and for privacy if you need it the most. Remember to change the defaults to the strictest security measures for the best privacy and protection from Malware (ads) and the works.

[-] Maiznieks@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Waterfox is an option too

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[-] VoxAliorum@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 months ago

Name a solution for a mobile phone webbrowser without ads including youtube ads that allows playing youtube while the screen is turned off and I am ready to switch.

[-] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 3 points 8 months ago

Dude, just use NewPipe or PipePipe from Fdroid. They are much better than using the Youtube mobile website.

[-] dai@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Or Grayjay, I found NewPipe / other frontends had their fair share of issues while I was using them. Their desktop app however I've not used as it was failing to build on my NixOS machines.