this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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I've been seeing a lot of people hate and uninstall Brave. Why? It's not like they're tracking us or doing anything else shady. If so, what's the privacy alternative?

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[–] ram@lemmy.ca 96 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Brave fucks with crypto. Never fuck with crypto. It's also Chromium, which means they're complicit in Google's efforts to DRM the internet.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm pro digial cash / Monero ... but it doesn't belong in a web browser. Super sketchy shit they are doing with BAT, which means they are tracking you.

[–] explodicle@local106.com 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I legitimately would be fine with automatically paying authors. It's not like I enjoy pay walls, ads, or AI garbage writing.

But yeah that's a job for existing crypto and a Firefox extension. Nothing about this needed a separate money supply or browser.

Yeah but if you automatically pay authors a dollar or two for every view, rather than your data, then how will data brokers resell your data hundreds of times for hundreds of dollars?

[–] El_Rocha@lm.put.tf 17 points 1 year ago

The complicit part is the most bullshit thing I have ever heard.

They said unequivocally that they won't support it, just like they didn't support Manifest V3.

[–] maniel@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Crypto isn't mandatory in brave, I use it for it's built-in ad block and they say they won't implement Google's DRM, also blockchain based since is nice

[–] ram@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm aware, but it's still supported, and that's enough for me to vomit over a garbage product.

They say they won't implement Google's DRM but words alone do not matter. If they continue to use Chromium, they'll be forced to adopt that and manifest v3.

[–] Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago

They would have to put more work into their fork, but they aren’t forced.

[–] nestEggParrot@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

Agree with the chromium dominance but ats up with crypto?

Its bloat in the browser but I spend maybe 5 mins turning those off and they never bother me again. Haven't seen one of their features magically turned on like what MS does.

Have they done anuthing sketchy to question their privacy commitments? Most I've seen was their Tor implementation was improper.

[–] simple@lemm.ee 55 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

See https://www.spacebar.news/p/stop-using-brave-browser

The TL;DR is that while the browser is technically fine, the people that own it are really fishy and are always trying to turn a profit, whether it be pushing crypto or discussing having their own ad network. They also use Chromium which means Google can slowly push things into it. You should use Firefox with Ublock Origin and tune the browser settings for privacy. There are also forks of Firefox tuned for privacy but I don't think most people need it.

[–] Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Firefox also cares about profit (the Mozilla Corporation makes Firefox and is a for-profit entity), that’s why they take that money from Google, try to get people to pay for email aliases and VPN, etc. If Brave maintains a chromium fork, they do not have to deal with “Google slowly pushing things into it” other than removing those things.

[–] nonsense@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

Firefox also cares about profit (the Mozilla Corporation makes Firefox and is a for-profit entity), that’s why they take that money from Google, try to get people to pay for email aliases and VPN, etc.

That does seem a lot better to me than crypto and ad networks.

[–] bitwolf@lemmy.one 1 points 1 year ago

What's funny is that Brave Shields appear to be a fancy UI around uBlock. The element picker UI isn't drastically changed.

The wallet was for a whole just Metamask (it is now it's own implementation which is nice).

[–] sculd@beehaw.org 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)
  1. Say no to chromium. Use Firefox and its forks. Even Safari (webkit) maybe a better choice to support a healthy web environment.

  2. Say no to crypto. I hope I don't need to explain this one. If you have to use Chromium browsers for whatever reasons, use Vivaldi.

[–] Devjavu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 year ago

I think it's better to phrase the crypto part differently. Because crypto is a great tool for privacy, while Brave's crypto crap is just annoying.

[–] davehtaylor@beehaw.org 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The company is run by Brendan Eich who is a hateful POS who spent millions trying to strip people of their human rights, the browser is a chrome reskin contributing to Google's domination of the web, it crams crypto bullshit in your face, and they’re now testing out AI features to add to it.

[–] marty_relaxes@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 1 year ago

They also automatically inserted affiliate links into your browser bar/ search results until it was discovered and the response was a nipple-touching 'sorry'.

Only found this article on binance on the quick but iirc it affected a couple other pages as well.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21283769/brave-browser-affiliate-links-crypto-privacy-ceo-apology

[–] itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 year ago

they sent me notifications that were ads

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 year ago

I was a brave user and just got sick of the gimmicks.

I've been on permanent team firefox now on all my devices 😁

[–] pixelpop3@beehaw.org 18 points 1 year ago

I am a very, very long time Firefox user. Brave probably has a case for getting Chrome users to consider switching, but I've never encountered any compelling reason to consider switching from Firefox to Brave.

[–] DetachablePianist@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago
[–] bright_side_@beehaw.org 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If google is dominant enough, everyone needs to follow. Or get left behind.

I think the main problem that remains is that all those chromium derivatives strengthen googles position as the de facto standard. It is not only about chromium, but also web developments outside of that browser, like DRM, SEO, AMP etc. Websites might adapt or tailor towards that browser or google created standards/tech. And thus, everyone (including Brave and all other, including firefox) needs to follow. Or get left behind.

If Brave, and all other chromium derivatives, don't agree with the direction chromium takes, can't they remove that code? Every deviation from chromium is going to cost resources, so they have to pick their fights. And if google/chromium is dominant enough, you will have to compromise on how much you can deviate. Brave needs to follow chromium or get incompatible.

Using Brave strengthens chromiums position as the de facto standard. And Google getting more dominant.

[–] pkulak@beehaw.org 13 points 1 year ago

Because we need more than one browser engine in the world, or Google will own the internet.

[–] tiny@midwest.social 13 points 1 year ago

Brave has a crypto token and that turns Alot of people off of brave. They also heavily encourage people to use custodial exchanges which turns some crypto people. They have also have added their affiliate links on cert pages when users would visit and they had nasty bug in their sync which mixed up user data. Otherwise Brave removes Alot of the bad parts of chrome and brave search is pretty solid. The privacy alternative is Firefox or librewolf. If you need chromium for whatever reason brave or ungoogled chromium

[–] Mossheart@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Super satisfied Vivaldi user, checking in. Chromium based and removes a lot of the Google. Custom settings are a power users dream.

[–] Zak8022@artemis.camp 4 points 1 year ago

Yea, Vivaldi is my first choice when something chromium-based is needed.

[–] hyperspace@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I find myself switching between Brave and Firefox. The anti-Brave crowd is mostly dissatisfied with the Brave ownership and the crypto/ad features. I myself don't have a problem with either. The crypto and ad features can simply be disabled. If you like Brave and it does what you want then you should use it

[–] mushvey@mastodon.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@hyperspace @Harry_h0udini

A large part is also that it's Chromium based. I agree about the features, the first thing I do with Firefox is go around and disable all the random stuff they've added (eg: pocket)

[–] hyperspace@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A large part is also that it's Chromium based.

Ah right, I forgot about that. It's a valid argument.

[–] maniel@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Reading comments here and in different anti brave posts I think it's a mix of anti chrome sentiments and pineapple pizza type hate train with a sprinkle of politics because brave owner sens to have right wing beliefs

[–] gamey@feddit.rocks 3 points 1 year ago

It's fille to the top with crypto garbage and just like Firefox build in tracker blocker Brave prioretizes website functionality over privacy so certain trackers aren't blocked and you are better off with UBlock Origin anyway, I use and vouch for Librewolf!

[–] squid@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago

Brave is a well market browser but does as much as any other chromium/firefox browser