If you are keen on personal privacy, you might have come across Brave Browser. Brave is a Chromium-based browser that promises to deliver privacy with built-in ad-blocking and content-blocking protection. It also offers several quality-of-life features and services, like a VPN and Tor access. I mean, it’s even listed on the reputable PrivacyTools website. Why am I telling you to steer clear of this browser, then?

  • endeavor@sopuli.xyz
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    3 days ago

    Using software made by people who are politically aligned to sell out your country to russia is stupid stupid stupid and makes you an idiot, idiot, idiot.

    Its not just politics when the politics are treason and electing a kgb asset. In a normal country and time it wouldn’t be a big thing wether your browser maintainer wants feee public transit or not but in current time right wing means you literally voted to destroy the entire us in order to weaken nato for the russian invasion.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      It sounds like you need to step away from social media and touch some grass.

      But let’s say you’re right, pretty much every big company is sucking up to Trump, and you’d be hard pressed to find something in your shopping cart that doesn’t benefit someone that supports him. That’s an untenable position.

      The better approach, IMO, is to avoid products from companies that mistreat their employees. That’s why I avoid Walmart, Amazon, and a few others, because that sends a clearer message and funnels my money to a better cause.

      Avoiding Brave is just virtue signaling, it doesn’t actually accomplish anything. If Brave goes under, Eich will still be conservative and probably still donate to causes you don’t like, but we’ll have one less competitor to Google’s absolute hegemony over the web browser market.

      Use Brave if it solves your problems, don’t if it doesn’t. Don’t base that decision on the personal views of the person who happens to be in charge.

      • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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        3 days ago

        but we’ll have one less competitor to Google’s absolute hegemony over the web browser market.

        Brave isn’t a competitor to Google, it’s an enabler. It uses the same engine, which is all Google cares about: Their engine, their internet.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          It absolutely is a competitor. Yes, it uses the same engine, but it blocks their ads. And at the end of the day, serving ads is what Google wants to do.

          But again, Firefox (and forks) is my main browser, and it’s what I recommend to everyone. But Brave is on my list of acceptable Chromium browsers, assuming you need a Chromium browser (I do for web dev at my day job).

          • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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            3 days ago

            Yes, it uses the same engine, but it blocks their ads.

            Which means nothing, when Google can, and is, pushing technology to freely unleash their ad network on all web pages, as a function of the engine itself.

            No, it’s not a competitor. Excepting in their ad markets, and frankly, it’s not a competitor, it’s a statistical blip.

            • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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              3 days ago

              as a function of the engine itself.

              AFAIK, there’s nothing in Blink (the rendering engine), V8 (the JavaScript run engine), or any other low level pieces of the browser that does this. What they’re doing is hamstringing extensions and building in a layer of tracking into the browser on top of the engine. A fork can absolutely keep the engine bits and remove the tracking bits.

              The problem with Chrome’s hegemony over the rendering engine has nothing to do with their ad network, but with their ability to steer people to use their products instead of competitors’ (e.g. “Google Docs is faster on Chrome, switch today!” just because they introduced a chrome-only spec extension).

              Brave absolutely is a competitor. They block Google’s ads, have their own search engine (and are building their own index), and provide a privacy friendly alternative to Chrome without any compatibility issues. That’s why it’s my backup to Firefox (and forks), sometimes things don’t work properly on Gecko and I want a privacy-friendly alternative to chrome. That used to be Chromium w/ uBlock Origin, but with that extension taken from the chrome web store, I reach for Brave, which has it built in.

              And yeah, it doesn’t have a ton of users. That doesn’t mean they’re not a competitor though.

      • endeavor@sopuli.xyz
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        3 days ago

        So brave is for people who want privacy and security and are fine when their private, secure software is designed by people who see no problems with not investigating russian cyberterrorism, russian bots and propaganda and see no issues with sharing some of the highest state secrets over some fucking messenger group with random people from outside the government. OH and not to menition think traitorous felons who failed a coup should be punished with 4 years in the highest office.

        I do not know about you but this is not the software I want to entrust literally all data of all my finances and important personal details on.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          designed by people who see no problems with…

          Do you have a source for those beliefs, or are you just assuming that someone vaguely supporting Trump has that perspective?

          I honestly don’t care what the devs believe, as long as they don’t intentionally put in vulnerabilities.

          this is not the software I want to entrust literally all data of all my finances and important personal details on.

          Same, which is why I use and recommend Firefox and derivatives.

          My point is that if your requirement is a chromium-hard based browser, you can do a lot worse than Brave.

          • endeavor@sopuli.xyz
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            3 days ago

            You cannot support current administration and at the same time be pro freedom, privacy and even pro common sense. These things are mutually exclusive, unless you’re lying or insanely stupid bot.

            Very simple.

            • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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              3 days ago

              I guess that depends on what you mean by “support.” You can support certain things the administration does while attacking others. I dislike most of what Trump has done, but I happen to like a few things Trump has done as well. It’s totally rational to say what you do and don’t like about a given administration. I voted for Biden, for example, and I was happy that he largely stayed out of my news feed and actually pulled us out of Afghanistan, but I’m not particularly happy about much of the rest of his presidency (still don’t regret my vote though).

              I don’t know how far Eich’s “support” goes, you’d have to ask him that. All I know is that he isn’t a fan of same-sex marriage at the government level. Maybe he’s a single issue voter, or maybe it’s something else. I don’t know, I haven’t seen much about his political preferences.

              My point is that we shouldn’t jump down someone’s throat and start assuming a whole host of things based on very limited evidence.

              • endeavor@sopuli.xyz
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                3 days ago

                The shit repubs are pulling, defending and double standarding is insane enough to not trust them as a whole for any rational person used to a functioning government. Period. You are doing the classic “hitler did some good things too” argument. Big picture doesn’t give a fuck. Any single issue voter, rational person or a non-piece of treasonous shit would distance themselves from repubs and try again with a sane political party. Anyone still not condemning republicans is untrustworthy and an enemy of democracy and freedom. Easy as

                • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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                  3 days ago

                  You are doing the classic “hitler did some good things too” argument

                  I’m really not. Hitler was a very different situation than Trump, and if you think they’re directly comparable, you need to take a break from the internet.

                  Yeah Trump sucks, and he’s dangerous (but mostly in an inept sort of way). I get it. But I think it’s highly unlikely that he tries to take dictatorial control of the US in any meaningful capacity.

                  There are some reasonable Republicans who don’t like the nonsense Trump is doing. In fact, I’d be surprised if most Republicans aren’t a fan of him flagrantly ignoring the law. Don’t lump them all into the same set of problems, that’s just going to put roughly half of the US against you. Instead of that, you could find some common ground and get a significant number to be on your side. Why fan this stupid culture war nonsense more than necessary?

                  Call out bad policy, acknowledge good policy, and demand accountability for lawbreaking.

                  Brendan Eich isn’t some secret Project 2025 mastermind, he’s just a dude that thinks privacy on the web is important and thinks his company has an interesting approach to solving that problem. Yeah, he has at least one bad political view, but that doesn’t mean everything he touches is automatically terrible.

                  • endeavor@sopuli.xyz
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                    3 days ago

                    If you can’t see trump becoming a dictator after he has said he would multible times and after a failed fucking coup, everything you said is wrong and or malicious. Thanks for outing yourself.

                    and this is not me reading into clues sprinkled in reddit comments found while being chronically online. THIS SHIT MAKES THE NEWS OF EVERY FUCKING COUNTRY.