Iâm sorry. Brave going deeper with AI and the already âbloatedâ browser with all the crypto stuff, it to me is no longer a browser thatâs worth using. I donât want all this. Give me an option to remove it.
Other browsers can be hardened and Mullvad Browser existing (with new memory mode coming soon) make for a superior browser to use even for your everyday needs from a privacy & security POV.
Ladybird canât get here soon enough.
I also feel like any browser having agentic capabilities even if turned off should be discounted for recommendations on Privacy Guides.
They do say that
Like all AI features in Brave, AI browsing is completely optional, off by default.
And at least on desktop you can remove AI in the UI.
What I mean is, I want the crypto and this new agentic option completely off of the app. Not off by default, I donât even want the code that runs these features in the browser. Thatâs what and how I meant by give me an option to remove it. I want the options completely gone and off the app.
Also, I canât yet make a case for the security issues this will cause and has, but PG should think twice before continuing to recommend this browser given this featureâs inevitable addition sometime next year when it âmaturesâ.
To me Brave is the kind of browser you canât just raw dog. I use a group policy file like:
brave.txt (1.7 KB)
Rename this file to brave.json and put it into your /etc/brave/policies/managed/ directory for it to customize Brave. This works for Linux so Iâm not sure about other platforms.
That config will make Brave believe that itâs manager by an organization and turn off all of its annoying features that you canât normally disable through the UI alone. I had Claude generate the config for me, so I canât be 100% sure that it doesnât do something stupid too, but itâs been working great for me so far.
I actually laughed out loud. Thanks
Iâd love to give this a shot but donât know if or how to do this on macOS.
Crazy how nothing can ever just be its own thing anymore. Can I not just have a browser thatâs just a browser? Why do I need it to do more than render web pages, exactly??? Make a separate âBrave AI Browserâ app if you must.
Helium exists. Being made by two guys. Dead simple Chromium without any BS. Also, we have Mullvad browser.
I agree.
Maybe ladybird will save us some day from the browser enshitification wars, but what youâre asking for is virtually impossible as software devs donât (usually) make software just for fun and it has to be monetized somehow for continued future support and innovation. Browsers in particular are super complex and take a lot of work.
Itâs likely exactly the same for you as Macs are a type of Linux. You should search on the exact directory to use for Macs. I do highly recommend this type of group policy modification though. I think PG should also recommend it as it greatly improves Braveâs UX and cuts out all the crap from its UI.
Iâll give it a shot and see it it works. But if you can share the path to the folder on macOS, that would be great. I only ask to avoid making a mistake and bricking the browser/app.
Brave is not really its own browser though, itâs a set of Chromium patches. Itâs not like theyâre building it from scratch, one, and two, theyâve been doing fine until now without using AI, and I donât think theyâre claiming this helps them monetize in any way.
Youâre mistaken, macOS and Linux are both Unix-like. That doesnât mean macOS is a type of Linux or that all the same functionality is supported. For example, there is no /etc/ on macOS.
Just like Helium. Itâs patches all the way through.
Isnât Helium Ungoogled Chromium though? 
Plus itâs hard enough to get a great browser that can be sustainable from a large team, let alone two people.
At this point, I trust a small team or just a couple guys who have proved they can make a simple product without the BS. Large companies have no idea what they are doing anymore - chasing features and functionality with AI and whatnot is just enshittifying the product even before it is stable or matures.
Yes, I think it is ungoogled but you can still install Chrome extensions. I canât live without my password manager extension on any browser. Though uBO comes preinstalled.
All you need to know should be documented here: https://support.brave.app/hc/en-us/articles/360039248271-Group-Policy
OK, I should have been more clear with what I mean. Youâre of course correct. I was trying to write that macOS and Linux are very similar, so Iâd expect things to work in a very similar way as opposed to Windows.
Looking at GitHub - brave/brave-core: Core engine for the Brave browser for mobile and desktop. For issues https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues, Brave seems a lot more involved than any other Chromium-fork that Iâve ever seen and has a bunch of full time devs working on it.
Actually looking forward to try this out. I will definitely wait for the stable release, though.
Adding the agentic browsing in a new window and profile seems to be just the right way to go about it, too. If you donât want to use it it will never get in your way.
Memory mode 
Brave has discovered/disclosed multiple vulnerabilities in agentic browsers in the last few months:
Agentic Browser Security: Indirect Prompt Injection in Perplexity Comet
Unseeable prompt injections in screenshots: more vulnerabilities in Comet and other AI browsers
They are the most likely to get this right and implement the feature carefully in my opinion, and they allow you to use your own local (or hosted elsewhere) models, so you arenât beholden to the privacy practices of OpenAI/Perplexity/Anthropic.
Thank you Brave!!
I do agree that Brave is getting quite bloated. Makes me almost want to switch to Firefox again!
But hey, options are options. As long as it wonât impact the non-AI users, Iâm happy if they provide a secure option for AI browsing.