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You need to stop using Brave (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days 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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[-] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 11 points 20 hours ago

I dislike any browser which blocks content (such as ads) by default. It may sound silly, but Imo, that's not what a browser should be doing. It's job is to act as an HTTP client, render HTML and do caching, storage and all the management which goes with it and offer any tools to tinker with it.
The meaning of the content displayed should be of no concern to the browser as it is subjective.
I will install an addon to deal with unwanted content as I see fit. Firefox is getting kinda bloated with all the things which come with it (pocket, accounts, default bookmarks...), but I can live with that.

[-] wabasso@lemmy.ca 1 points 18 hours ago

What if we start from the premise of a browser being judged by its most popular use case?

I’m happy to change some default settings to customize for my use case, knowing that most users that don’t know/care about such things are getting ads blocked by default (let’s be honest, I like crawling through settings each time I install new software regardless :P )

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[-] observes_depths@aussie.zone 54 points 1 day ago

Honestly what do people have against Firefox that can't be fixed with plugins? It's the only decent browser that isn't chrome based, and I think that deserves support. And with plugins and sync it's a great experience.

[-] mcv@lemmy.zip 13 points 21 hours ago

Firefox is great. Mozilla, however, is making some weird moves every now and then. A lot of people don't quite trust Mozilla to have their interests at heart anymore.

The obvious solution is to use a Firefox fork. I have no idea whether there's a meaningful difference between the various Firefox forks, and would welcome a summary.

[-] pazuzuzu@leminal.space 6 points 18 hours ago

I switched to LibreWolf, which is a Firefox fork that prioritizes anonymity and privacy. I like it, but there are definite quirks:

it will tell every website your time zone is UTC+0, which breaks some stuff. Proton Calendar works if you tell it your actual timezone.
no password saving and cookies delete every session, so you have to log in to every website every time you restart. This is intentional but I don't understand the rationale. You can install a password manager though and self-host it if you want.
because your device fingerprint is generic, a lot of websites incorrectly assume you are a not. I have to use FF for GrubHub, for instance, as they won't play nice with LibreWolf due to restrictions on the HTML5 Canvas element, for instance.

[-] BrilliantBadger@piefed.ca 1 points 13 hours ago

You can set exceptions for cookies on per site basis. I know because I also thought this for long time before finding it.

Settings - Privacy & Security - Cookies and Site Data - Manage exceptions

One item off the annoyance list. :)

[-] FG_3479@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

You can turn off the fingerprint protection in the Librewolf tab of the settings page.

[-] mcv@lemmy.zip 2 points 18 hours ago

All of this should be configurable per site. Lots of sites do not need to know my timezone, location, cookies or fingerprint, but some do. I want to give sites I like, those where I've intentionally created an account, usually, permission to these things while denying it to every random article I happen to click on.

[-] zeb420@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago

For me it’s a combination of Mozilla making strange business decisions (removing of the “we never sell your data” policy) and the fact that a lot of websites take forever to load on Firefox.

I’ve tried forks, LibreWolf pisses me off. Too many settings to change just to still have a broken browsing experience in the sake of privacy. If I need that level of privacy, I’ll use I2P/Tor.

I hate the fact that chromium has won, but it’s getting difficult to avoid the fact that web developers don’t give a rats ass if the website doesn’t work well on Firefox.

Brave was my primary for a while, but I switched to Vivaldi after reading about some of the BAT bait and switch.

[-] sobchak@programming.dev 12 points 1 day ago

Mozilla changed their privacy policy and terms of use about a year ago in ways that show they cannot be trusted. I think Librewolf offers more privacy/security features than Firefox can with plugins (disabling some canvas features that are used for fingerprinting for example). I think Firefox has some advertising/tracking crap enabled by default too (PPA API?). IDK, I just don't trust them anymore with their policy changes. Mullvad Browser is even more "hardened," but less convenient than Librewolf.

[-] dRLY@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

My main browsers are FF or Zen (a fork of FF), but I think a lot of sites aren't able to work with just a plug-in due to how deeply they are coded for Chromium. Some of them being Amazon sites like Luna, Amazon Music, and Audible (pretty sure their other media sites/services also refuse to work if any hint of non-Chromium browsers are detected. I have run into non-Amazon sites with media or similar tell me to "update your browser" or "use a supported browser" (which is at least more honest than telling me that my FF is "out of date").

While there are likely elements in some sites that actually can work with FF (I have had really random moments where I got part of a song to play on Amazon Music but then gives the "browser is out of date" message). The Chromium focused coding is IE all over again. Just a self-fulfilling cycle of making it look like FF is not as capable. And I hate that in the instances where changing the User Agent to be Chrome works, that it just keeps stats looking like Chrome and forks are what people are using (and might lead to seeming like FF is used less than it actually is).

[-] observes_depths@aussie.zone 1 points 16 hours ago

I haven't encountered anything like that, but maybe that's because I wouldn't touch anything Amazon with a 2 metre stick

[-] dRLY@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 hours ago

Not a bad stance. But they are a major provider of media that regular users might use. They also tend to be the people that would rather not bother with FF if they see it as "not as capable" and never leave Chrome. Which further feeds the goals of Google to be the default just like MS did with IE (but much more cleaver by providing the base for endless forks).

MS fucked up by caring that IE was the "only" option and didn't push creating such a good base to have forks to keep their versions of "standards." Google did an amazing job at pouring money into getting Chrome past the early years of lack of mature features (and while they still had good will of helping to get people away from IE).

[-] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 45 points 1 day ago

An extra reason: Eich is a homophobic asshole and an anti-masker

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[-] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 day ago

Desktop = Librewolf, Mullvad and hardened firefox browsers. Strictly separating uses. Mobile (Android) = Cromite, Brave, Firefox and Tor. Again, separating uses.

[-] KhantoBlackhand@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day 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 2 points 18 hours ago

Waterfox is an option too

[-] hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 19 hours ago

i recently installed cromite to find its adblock completely non-functional, anyone knows if it's just me?

(i mean the obvious ones like google ads were shown..)

[-] v0id@lemmy.ml 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

just disable the in built blocker and use ublock instead

[-] pazuzuzu@leminal.space 1 points 18 hours ago

Adblock was purchased by Google years ago and now allows "non-intrusive" (is Google) ads by default. Use uBlock if you can.

[-] hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 18 hours ago

lol ik, i'm not talking about adblock(tm) but instead i mean the ad blocking feature integrated in the cromite browser. afaik it uses ABP engine/filters tho

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