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Brave Browser, wiping history still leaves trace of visited sites

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Re: Brave Browser, wiping history still leaves trace of visited sites

#41
post #6

Is it fair to _ever_ say that clearing the history completely removes all traces of visited sites? I have always operated under the assumption that some trace will remain pretty much forever.

Why would you make this assumption? It seems perfectly reasonable to me to assume, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that a program actually does what it claims to do.

Because it is a well known fact that it is trivially easy for a resourced attacker to retrieve data from a storage medium well after your computer claims it is deleted.

Re: Brave Browser, wiping history still leaves trace of visited sites

#42
post #4

well, compared to undisclosed affiliate marketing for trading sites[1], soliciting of donations without consent[2] or the recent redirection through affiliate links[3], this seems pretty tame. [1]: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/8793 [2]: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2019/01/13/brave-web-br... [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442027

I'm already using Windows and despite me ticking all privacy checks - I am, as such, trusting MS with my data. Might as well switch over to Edge when I need a chromium-based browser. Threads like these move me in inch closer to that decision. (currently default: Firefox and secondary: Brave) ps: Edge's reader mode and narrator are top-notch.

* when I need a chromium-based browser *

Try ungoogled-chromium:

https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium

Put uMatrix, HTTPS everywhere

Re: Brave Browser, wiping history still leaves trace of visited sites

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've disliked Brave from the beginning. Initially because of the pretentious - and frankly appropriated - name, but now for the much more substantive reasons you've cited. Seriously, if you want a browser that gives you control over your data and privacy, use Firefox. It doesn't do any of this shady nonsense.

appropriated name?

Yes: the concept of browsing the web with your privacy preserved has literally zero to do with the concept of bravery. The name is clearly a statement but not one that's ever made any sense to me.

Re: Brave Browser, wiping history still leaves trace of visited sites

#44
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. None of the publicly/commercially available software can do that, so don't worry most people won't pay for it.

secure erase is the only way to clear all sectors on an SSD but at that point you're just relying on the manufacturer's implementation (and past experience from encryption has ruled that to be a derp). an easy alternative is just to encrypt the drive using software-based encryption and just delete the key. Windows 10 has now stopped relying on hardware-based ssd encryption because it was found some of it was just gar…

Thanks: helpful to know.

Re: Brave Browser, wiping history still leaves trace of visited sites

#45
post #4

well, compared to undisclosed affiliate marketing for trading sites[1], soliciting of donations without consent[2] or the recent redirection through affiliate links[3], this seems pretty tame. [1]: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/8793 [2]: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2019/01/13/brave-web-br... [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442027

I've disliked Brave from the beginning. Initially because of the pretentious - and frankly appropriated - name, but now for the much more substantive reasons you've cited. Seriously, if you want a browser that gives you control over your data and privacy, use Firefox. It doesn't do any of this shady nonsense.

Firefox prevents me from installing webextensions from sources and even forces me to send the code of my own extensions for my own usage to their webservices in order to use them. This is certainly not a browser that "gives you control over your data", when you're a hacker.

Re: Brave Browser, wiping history still leaves trace of visited sites

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've disliked Brave from the beginning. Initially because of the pretentious - and frankly appropriated - name, but now for the much more substantive reasons you've cited. Seriously, if you want a browser that gives you control over your data and privacy, use Firefox. It doesn't do any of this shady nonsense.

Brave is trash, but to say Firefox hasn't done shady things is a bit of joke after the whole incident where they sent full site URLs and interaction data over to Cliqz's servers for a random sampling of users in Germany while being neither opt-in nor clear to the users about what data was being sent.

Short sighted and terrible PR, yes, but to say that what Firefox was doing was shady, specially anything close to as shady as Brave, is being straight out disingenuous.

Re: Brave Browser, wiping history still leaves trace of visited sites

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've disliked Brave from the beginning. Initially because of the pretentious - and frankly appropriated - name, but now for the much more substantive reasons you've cited. Seriously, if you want a browser that gives you control over your data and privacy, use Firefox. It doesn't do any of this shady nonsense.

Firefox prevents me from installing webextensions from sources and even forces me to send the code of my own extensions for my own usage to their webservices in order to use them. This is certainly not a browser that "gives you control over your data", when you're a hacker.

You can load local extensions from about:debugging. They just won't be permanently installed. (Developer edition may be different.) And Chrome's local loading comes with a disable modal at every startup. So I'm curious what browser you consider worthy.

Edit: forgot to mention you can install from 3p sources as I've done from my own site in the past. They just need to be signed by Mozilla first.

Re: Brave Browser, wiping history still leaves trace of visited sites

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

appropriated name?

Yes: the concept of browsing the web with your privacy preserved has literally zero to do with the concept of bravery. The name is clearly a statement but not one that's ever made any sense to me.

Not sure appropriated is the word you’re looking for.

Re: Brave Browser, wiping history still leaves trace of visited sites

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've disliked Brave from the beginning. Initially because of the pretentious - and frankly appropriated - name, but now for the much more substantive reasons you've cited. Seriously, if you want a browser that gives you control over your data and privacy, use Firefox. It doesn't do any of this shady nonsense.

Firefox prevents me from installing webextensions from sources and even forces me to send the code of my own extensions for my own usage to their webservices in order to use them. This is certainly not a browser that "gives you control over your data", when you're a hacker.

As a hacker, you should start to learn howto use google ;)

'about:config' set 'xpinstall.signatures.required' to 'false'

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