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?

  • ram ( ram@lemmy.ca ) English
    107·
    3 years ago

    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.

  • simple ( simple@lemm.ee ) English
    63·
    3 years ago

    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.

      • nonsense ( nonsense@beehaw.org ) 
        6·
        3 years 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 ( bitwolf@lemmy.one ) 
      1·
      3 years 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 ( sculd@beehaw.org ) 
    56·
    3 years ago

    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.

      • sculd ( sculd@beehaw.org ) 
        3·
        3 years ago

        Ungoogled Chromium is a great choice. I just hope it can auto update itself. 😅

        Also I once encountered an anti-virus programme miscategorize Ungoogled Chromium as malware. It can be annoying for those uninitiated.

  • Takeshidude ( Takeshidude@beehaw.org ) 
    24·
    3 years ago

    Google sure is. Brave is a chromium-based browser - a browser that is built off of Google Chrome, so anything Google wants to put in their web browser to track you and devour your internet-soul is also in Brave and all the other “web browsers” that are just chromium skins like Edge.

    • El_Rocha ( El_Rocha@lm.put.tf ) 
      16·
      3 years ago

      Just because Brave forks of Chromium, that doesn’t mean they have to accept every change Google does and they can also do their own changes (ex: not supporting Manifest V3).

      At least they are financially independent from Google, which you can’t say about Firefox.

        • hedgehog ( hedgehog@ttrpg.network ) 
          7·
          3 years ago

          Apple devices with Safari only.

          Google pays Apple over 30 times what they pay Mozilla ($15 billion vs $450 million - both annually in 2021) to make the Google search engine the default in their browser.

        • El_Rocha ( El_Rocha@lm.put.tf ) 
          2·
          3 years ago

          I just think it’s stupid people are always crying that Chromium forks are “controlled by Google” when they can do whatever they want with the fork.

          I’m not saying that Firefox is bad because they take Google’s money.

          I just think that if you consider that, they are more dependent on Google than Brave is.

          And since one of the main complaints of people is that they want to turn away from Google stuff, that should be taken into consideration.

            • millie ( millie@beehaw.org ) 
              6·
              3 years ago

              I’m with you up until the use of all of this to discourage getting away from Google stuff. Just because Google is also involved in open source doesn’t mean that their other projects become more trustworthy, or that the safety of those open source projects should automatically come into question.

              If Google pulls out of Gnome, it’d affect Gnome but it wouldn’t obliterate it. Likewise, somebody would probably take over some form of a hard fork of Chromium. But if Google drops support on something you’ve made an essential part of your workflow, you’re in trouble.

              The point of getting away from Google as much as possible isn’t to exist in a world without Google, it’s to avoid having a single point of failure and to avoid putting literally all your data into the hands of a company that will use it however they can to profit. Half my duck duck go searches get a !g at the front, and Firefox or no, I’m still on an android phone, but that doesn’t mean I’m trying to hand them all my notes for work that isn’t finished yet so they can regurgitate its component parts. Train on my stuff all you want, but at least let me finish it first.

              Google right now is like a bad relationship. It’s gotten completely wrapped up in our way of life to the point that it’s overly comfortable doing a half-assed or self-serving job and knowing most people won’t bother to shake things up looking for something better.

              It’s probably best if we all get a little space from megacorps like Google, even if we don’t abandon the relationship entirely.

      • CrypticCoffee ( CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml ) 
        8·
        3 years ago

        If Google pay the best search price that funds browser development, why not? Firefox aren’t in the search market. They could easily go bing or yahoo like they used previously, but more income means more money away for building modern web browsers which are millions of lines of code.

        Brave don’t need to do that because Google codes their browser for them.

  • pixelpop3 ( pixelpop3@beehaw.org ) 
    21·
    3 years 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.

      • Scary_le_Poo ( Scary_le_Poo@beehaw.org ) 
        6·
        3 years ago

        If a site breaks because you’re using ff, the web developer behind it is clearly a fucking idiot. If it works in chrome it’s going to work in FF, unless you’ve done something extraordinarily stupid.

      • floofloof ( floofloof@lemmy.ca ) English
        2·
        3 years ago

        A ton of websites? I block 3.5 million domains through DNS and run uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger and some other anti-tracking bits and pieces, and I’ve only ever had problems with a small handful of sites, which were almost all resolved by temporarily unblocking something. I have had to hop over to a Chromium-based browser only once in recent months, for one particularly badly implemented website. Where are you seeing this “ton” of sites that break? My experience has been quite different.

        I find it’s just fine to use Firefox and hop over to Brave about once a year when something doesn’t work.

  • tiny ( tiny@midwest.social ) English
    17·
    3 years 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

  • bright_side_ ( bright_side_@beehaw.org ) 
    16·
    3 years 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.

  • hyperspace ( hyperspace@kbin.social ) 
    9·
    3 years ago

    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

  • 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒍 ( maniel@lemmy.ml ) 
    7·
    3 years 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