I don’t want any kind of data collection. As it stands, Brave isn’t fit for inclusion in free/libre Linux repos, because the project is hostile towards forks and independent builds that remove the crapware bundled with the official release. It’s “open source,” but the developers don’t want users to ask any questions. Use our binaries and shut up.
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Could you specify where this has happened?
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I don’t want any kind of data collection.
Well, oh boy, do I have some great news for you.
It’s completely optional.
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The developers (a for-profit company) have a long history of deception and scammy practices. They are also notoriously hostile to forks, which they call “free riding on our services.” They, of course, conveniently forget that Brave itself is a fork. See here for some historical perspective.
They only sued because they called the fork BraverBrowser which is understandable.
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I find it surprising that a privacy community finds the inclusion of adware and other commercial dependencies in free software acceptable. The reason you don’t see Brave included into Linux distributions, built independently by a process you can trust, is precisely because the developers are openly hostile to it. They clearly don’t want independent builds, and would rather have you use their “official” releases with their malware built into it.
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No, it is not understandable and goes against the spirit of free software. Brave Software would have likely also objected if the same individuals kept the name but distributed patched versions. This is what the CEO said on the matter.
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You mean it’s optional to turn it off? Because as soon as you launch the browser, it’s already collecting and sending telemetry. Oh yeah, it even collects telemetry during the download and installation.
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So where does Vivaldi fall in all this? On the one hand i hear that its a European alternative to big tech on the other i don’t see it recommended here.
It’s not FOSS nor private.
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Brave Origins seemed interesting
https://xcancel.com/BrendanEich/status/2006412918783619455
It is still in development, but it currently doesn’t seem like it is a stripped down build.
Brave Origin might just come with a screen to toggle all bloatware features, which is effectively already possible in the default build.
Lets hope this will not be a rebranded paid version with the same problems as the normal build.
What to expect from a company that claims to offer secure and private search engine, AI, VPN and news reader, while the CEO talks about ‘“Trust me, bro” is not a security model.‘ on an AI/crypto convention.
https://xcancel.com/AttentionToken/status/2028911788624924835
I was wrong. If I understand it correctly Origin will be available as an upgrade to the normal build and as a seperate build without the useless features.
What Chromium based desktop browser do you recommend?
Just to comment on the beta/nightly topic. I use the nightly browser as my daily. I have added containers to it and everything is working great. 3 profiles plus the experimental ai profile just to play around with non account stuff
I recommend running SecureBlue and using the Trivalent browser it comes with. It is worth switching OSes in order to use a truly privacy-respecting browser (which Brave is not, or they would have sane defaults, which…they do not).
It may be worth it , but it is rarely practical to switch out your entire operating system for a specialized web browser.
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If you are using an OS that doesn’t have a privacy respecting browser available, it is absolutely practical. The browser is one of the main packages most people use as part of their OS. Installing a new OS is also not very hard or time consuming.
Trivalent and Secureblue are not meant to be privacy-focused, only secure. The privacy that comes with it is just a byproduct. Trivalent has less privacy protections than Brave browser with default settings.
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In this community installing a new OS may not be considered a big deal (I don’t consider it a big deal either), but if you talk to people outside this community, or more generally individuals with less interest in tech and computers, then the perception that:
Will vanish pretty quickly, either from a lack of knowledge or care around the issue.
I will say that I agree that:
and therefore should be as private and secure as possible. Brave may not be the best by any means (requiring manual debloating and hardening) but it is better than many other options for individuals unable or unwilling to move to specialized OSes with specialized web browsers.
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I would say this is demonstrably false. Brave with default settings is absolutely horrific in my opinion. With the amount of non-consensual telemetry that browser collects, I would not even use it, let alone with default settings. But hey to each their own.
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