Stop using chromium.
this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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Privacy
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Yea I don't think it's bad for privacy, just there are better options out there which get you the same privacy while also addressing other issues? Issues like Chromium, history of controversies and shady behaviour (crypto, replacing ads with their own), the business model, and issues with the CEO.
Instead, why not just use standard Firefox? The only downside I've heard is that the default settings don't do what Brave does when you first install each browser, but that's a weak argument considering we all modify the settings anyway. Someone should just outline which Firefox settings should be flipped to match default Brave, and we can be done with the weekly 'Why not Brave' discussions
I use Firefox as my daily browser, and run Mullvad browser when I need to be cautious with a task.
Easier option is to use Librewolf since they do a lot of work for you
Or Mull if you're on Android
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Be careful, Brave marketing team is well known for disguising themselves as users and promote their bloated crapware via comments.
They overdid it in 4chan and ended up alienating the entire community.
Then they moved to Reddit but people already started seeing Brave for what they really are, a scummy company that has been caught redhanded way to many times to be trusted.
Now they are here on Lemmy, desperately trying to get more chumps under their ad machine before BAT hits 0 and their advertising partners lose all interest.
Just say no to Brave, there are way better browsers out there, with real privacy, that won't make you look like a hateful brainwashed-by-politics piece of shit.
Any examples of their stuff on 4chan?
Bloated. That really nails what Brave is
YES, IT IS!
You should NOT trust Brave to not play fast and loose with your privacy. They already operate an advertising network (it operates on those stupid little BAT tokens) and they DO inject ads and affiliate links.
I strongly recommend Firefox^1^ or Librewolf.
^1^ - You must install plugins and apply user.js fixes yourself to properly harden Firefox completely against tracking; but this is doable.
Hey, I use Firefox but I've never heard of making edits to the user.js config. Could you point me in the direction of some information about this?
Check arkenfox: https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/
This. They detail perfectly how you can properly harden Firefox with whichever settings you think fit your privacy needs best and even discuss the tradeoffs for each setting.
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Why does this topic keep coming up?
Anything. 👏 Chromium. 👏 Based. 👏 Is. 👏 Bad.
If you give a shit, you'll suck it up and change to Firefox or Mull. If your excuse for not doing so is UI based, your convenience is more important than your privacy.
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f i r e f o x.
i mean cmon
It’s always been weird to me how people use Brave. Like there’s a big class of Brave users who seem like people who would just be better off on Firefox? I guess it’s some of the best evidence I have seen that marketing works.
The problem is, that Firefox Android can't group tabs. That's VERY important for me, and is the only reason I don't use Firefox (it's messy using different browsers in PC/Phone).
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It has an opt in option to sell ad space for some of its crypto. Some people just are offended that the option is even there.
It's literally just a coat of paint on google chrome. You might as well install internet explorer toolbars until an unknown browser appears on your desktop and use that.
You're on Lemmy. Lemmy hates Brendan Eich. Take the top comments with a grain of salt.
Brave is an alternative. There are better alternatives but its better than chrome or edge
Yes.
They had their ups and downs.
There was that thing where some domains where whitelisted from blocking, don't know whether it was cookies or something else. Not great, but easily explained by not wanting to break stuff for unexpecting users, maybe bad communication. Shouldn't happen when you go privacy first, but that was resolved quickly after being discovered at least.
There was the time when they injected affiliate links when visiting some sites, to generate some revenue of course. They overdid it and replaced affiliate links of other people I think, but again they changed it after the community complained. I don't know whether that's optional now or completely gone. In any case, no harm was done to the users in this instance.
One thing you can definitely hold against them to this day is their CEO. He supported anti-queer legislature in the past and was dismissed as Firefox CEO (CTO? Something very high up at least) for that reason. He did apologize for it and afaik didn't continue supporting that kinda stuff, but you never know.
Imo the browser as it is right now is pretty good and unique in what it has to offer. The biggest issue really is a lack of trust by the community.
No, brave is not bad for your privacy. There has been some controversie but no dealbreaker so far imo.
If you're on mobile I think brave has hands down the best UX (not necessarily UI but I like it a lot), on desktop I recommend firefox, which has a lot of custom themes to choose from (https://firefoxcss-store.github.io).
I personally like and use https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix
I like Firefox mostly because it's cool to have engine competition. I mostly use the default dark theme. It looks good enough for me. I don't look much at the top when browsing.
On android it's still lagging behind the chromium competition. And having mismatched browsers isn't great for syncing. So I just use Firefox on android too, good enough.
Tho, if miss matching wasn't an issue, personally I think I would use Kiwi browser. It's an open source chromium browser which supports chrome extensions.
It's less about whether any individual thing they've done has been bad, more that they keep doing things and keep doing thm in sneaky ways. Every time something happened the CEO went on a marketing campaign and drummed up a bunch of new users to drown out the news story. They come across as shady, which gives the impression that it would take a relatively small sack of money for them to sell their users up the river.
Brave is better than some out of the box, but far from the best. I'd say Mull is better for mobile, which is a Firefox fork. It has a companion Android System Webview called Mulch.
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