Brave is not a good Private Browser

[Crazyroostereye]

This is going to be a bit of a rant.

I really dislike Brave as a Private Browser Recommendation. While they Implement some really good Features for Privacy, they also have a long history forgoing that Privacy for themselves, and going as far as doing sleazy and misleading things. They have done the same thing Honey did, with replacing links for some Website with their affiliate link [1]. Have misled they're User base with fake Donations Boxes for Creators, which weren't affiliated at all with Brave [2].
It is hard to trust a Browser that just misleads it's user base so easily. Even with the Benefit of the doubt, they still did actions which makes them untrustworthy.
They are still better than most Browsers, but calling them a Privacy Focused Browser is an Insult to all other Browser that actually do care.

[dylan.at]

Completely agree. Their stuff with their crypto token, which still looks to be a thing, feels weird as well. I would never ever recommend this browser to anyone (along with the Opera GX browser).

[Cobra!]

Honestly, the fact Brave is Chrome-based was enough of a red-flag for me. Using code from one of the most privacy intrusive companies in history as a basis for a private browser is a very unusual choice.
Plus they also seem to be more catering to the "freeze peach" crowd rather than privacy advocates, and from my experience, any product that boasts free speech is usually a scam.

[Crazyroostereye]

Completely agree. Their stuff with their crypto token, which still looks to be a thing, feels weird as well. I would never ever recommend this browser to anyone (along with the Opera GX browser).

While I dislike Crypto Currency and that stuff, I do not hold it against them. The Privacy Crowd does like Crypto for Reasons that I can accept. But yeah it gives me to the sleazy and manipulative vibe.

Honestly, the fact Brave is Chrome-based was enough of a red-flag for me.

Honestly I don't carry much malice against Chromium, it is going the way of Android. Where more and more Features are added in Proprietary Blobs that make the Browser Functional which sucks. But my Issue lies actually more in the Monopoly in the Blink Engine and to the extent Chromium. Where there won't be any other Option then using Google's thing which is semi Open Source or Apples thing which will be equally shit. Basically what the Mobile Operating System Land Scape is looking like right now.

[CitricScion]

There are some negatives in Brave's history that are not great, but my view is that Brave is still the most privacy respecting browser you can comfortably daily drive out of the box. It's built in Chromium, has good defaults for digital privacy, and has settings to shut off everything else. But there is the crypto and the history that may get in the way for some.

The nice thing is that we have options! Vivaldi is good in my opinion despite not doing as much to actively protect your privacy - they mostly give you a ad/tracker blocker and leave you alone. Firefox is also good and can be hardened. And you can get Ungoogled Chromium as well.

Privacy Guides is a good resource for folks who want to dive deeper into what is out there and which browsers make sense for different use cases.
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop-browsers/

[Crazyroostereye]

My problem is, especially in the sector of Privacy, Trust is the most important aspect. Google or Microsoft could bring a browser that is Open Source and privacy preserving. And I wouldn't even touch that shit with a 5ft pool. Out of a Simple reason the Company behind it have a long history of doing bad things to its users. Same goes for Brave. It is such a young company with such a long track record of doing bad things, especially for Browser marketing itself to be not bad. It's just not trustworthy. And without trust how can I use the Software. I won't read the Diff every update for the Codebase, so I have to rely on them.
And some of the things they have done, are beyond incompetence. And have been deliberately misleading or Evil.

and has settings to shut off everything

I tend to use the Default as a good measure. As you can make most Browsers really good when changing the settings. Ignoring that finding them can often be a Pain.