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Brave, the false sensation of privacy

ebin.city

31–40 of 501 posts

Re: Brave, the false sensation of privacy

#31
In addition to some of the other oddities with the article (i.e. the absolutely wrong claim about Brave's ad blocker), I think the security between Chromium and Firefox is a bit too simplistic? This piece [1] might go too far in the other direction, but at the very least it outlines why there are deficiencies in Firefox, comparatively.

[1]: https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/firefox-chromium.ht...

Re: Brave, the false sensation of privacy

#32
post #18

I always find it odd that we worry so much about how much our browsers are tracking us, but almost nothing about what our ISPs are doing. Every time I've looked into it, it seems much worse. As far as I can tell, ISPs are legally allowed to sell your browsing history to third parties: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/for-sale-your-pr...

I only know enough about networking to be dangerous but I am convinced Comcast is doing shady shit with my modem when I change the DNS settings to use non-Comcast servers. Every once in a while I’ll attempt to use Wireshark to try to make sense of what’s happening but I’m pretty clueless and don’t really know what I’m looking at/for.

If anyone knows any good resources to learn about the ISP nuts and bolts that make internet magic happen between my modem and everyone else’s servers I would be most appreciative.

Re: Brave, the false sensation of privacy

#33
post #27

FF + uorigin + a dns blocker like pihole seems to be where it’s at right now. Maybe EFF privacy badger on top Any better options out there? Been thinking of adding protonvpn

FF now does DNS over HTTPS by default (Preferences > General > Network Settings), it defaults to using NextDNS and is configurable.

Some people will be uncomfortable with this default, but it's a step up from consumer ISPs who _will_ track you, to a 3rd party who Mozilla says wont.

I add Mullvad VPN (because wiregaurd is frickin awesome), which also allows you to use their DNS servers, but for this you actually have to turn off FF's DNS over HTTPS to allow the wiregaurd interface to pick up the DNS requests - they have a really good "leak" checker page while using their servers to check for various protocols https://mullvad.net/en/check/

Yes yes I know, VPN doesn't unbreak the internet, but here we are.

Re: Brave, the false sensation of privacy

#34
post #15

So I feel as if the author is missing the point. Of course brave markets to you with ads. That's the entire point of the web browser. To ad-block, but then to replace it with a suitable privacy protecting alternative to the point that Brave (and everyone else) has no idea which ads you were served and what your browsing history is. The entire point is to mot just be an ad blocker, but to be private, and to provide a…

I feel the author is on point. Brave is all about marketing and surfing the privacy wave to make profit.

Take a look at https://brave.com/brave-ads/

Brave goal is to acquire as much users as possible to sell them to advertisers. They are no different from Google. Might as well use Chrome with ublock origin and farm crypto on your own.

Re: Brave, the false sensation of privacy

#35
post #26

The people arguing that Firefox has an edge because it maintains a separate browser engine (like the writer of this article) are going to have real difficulties making their argument. Ditto the attacks on Brave for not being private enough. The people who care about privacy should be more worried about getting caught in Google's web of properties than about privacy per-se - that company is bad news. And Firefox is mo…

You may be right, and you may not be. It has to be good that there are more than exactly one engine, it means there is a discussion, some level of "forced openness".

That wouldn't be possible if web developers could simply rely on undocumented quirks of a sole browser.

It's possible that FF will die. But I think that would be extremely sad. For one, Manifest V3 would be forced upon the entire web => no more uOrigin.

Re: Brave, the false sensation of privacy

#36
I found a list [0] on HN awhile ago of "free, open source and privacy respecting services and alternatives to privative services".

I have been using many of the items before I came across the list, and started using some after going through it.

Many items on the list are viable and practical alternatives to proprietary products commonly used.

[0]: https://github.com/pluja/awesome-privacy

Re: Brave, the false sensation of privacy

#37
Firefox user here. I've looked into Brave, but decided I didn't really want it.

This article is incredibly slanted. It takes every single possible fact it can and spins it into "Brave Bad."

Something like this:

> Brave is just another Chromium skin. So at the end, when using Brave or any other Chromium based browser, you’re giving marketshare to Google and supporting their evil web empire.

Is simply not true. Every browser that isn't Chrome, every search page that isn't google.com, sends a message to not just Google but other competitors in the space that users want change.

In addition, in an ideal world Chromium would be able to build enough momentum through community support (or support from MS or others) to provide a healthy fork, free from Google's clutches.

I agree that Firefox is better - it is my personal web browser of choice - but that doesn't mean that Brave is bad software, or that the people behind it are evil, and anything that tamps down Google's monopoly is good in my mind.

Re: Brave, the false sensation of privacy

#38
post #19
post #13

I don't like the crypto nonsense of Brave, and while I like Firefox in theory, its performance leaves a lot to be desired and they don't seem to know who their user base is. Microsoft Edge got a decent native vertical tab solution before Firefox did! Edge! I wish some nonprofit would make a Chromium browser with sane defaults and take my donations. That's all I need.

> its performance leaves a lot to be desired I'm not sure what you're talking about; this may be the case several times in the past, but you should check again because this is a thing that constantly changes. Firefox performance today doesn't really leave a lot to be desired IMO > Microsoft Edge got a decent native vertical tab solution before Firefox did! Edge! Tree Style Tabs has been around since like… 2007?. Or d…

For me at least Firefox is a no go on every laptop I’ve worked on - the fans start spinning up and I start losing battery life really quickly (especially on macs). Works fine on my desktops though.

Re: Brave, the false sensation of privacy

#39
post #27

FF + uorigin + a dns blocker like pihole seems to be where it’s at right now. Maybe EFF privacy badger on top Any better options out there? Been thinking of adding protonvpn

I would add a VPN for sure. People always complain that it just shifts the trust to them instead of your ISP, but there's many VPN providers who I trust a hell of a lot more than any ISP.
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