I used to use brave when I just started becoming privacy aware. Here are the reasons why:
it’s chromium based. I loved the way chromium based browsers looked, especially when compared to Firefox. They had a comforting feel to them, whereas Firefox had a very “office-ey” feel to it.
I wasn’t aware of the issues of chromium dominating the market share that it does and how monopolization in this manner can be harmful.
I wasn’t aware of the people behind brave.
I had seen older people use Firefox (with the default UI, which I didn’t like). That’s why, I associated Firefox with “old and outdated”. I hadn’t seen anyone use brave, and it looked quite good at the time for me.
Now, I use Mercury, a Firefox fork (ikik, it hasn’t seen an update in a long time, shush). I’ve loaded it up with my custom CSS, so its appearance is exactly the way I like.
They are using a browser fork that isn’t being maintained, so any current vulnerabilities it has will likely not be solved, including the one i know of that is currently being exploited and was fixed in firefox over a year ago.
I’m not saying that Firefox and other forks of it won’t get vulnerabilities, but as they are maintained, and this goes especially for Firefox which they are forks of, the vulnerabilities will likely be fixed in a timely manner.
Sometimes I’d prefer a polished product from a company with customers they expect to satisfy rather than a janky free product with ads. Their Leo AI and VPN, though it’s not something most people want, makes it more likely that Brave will have someone to be accountable for
‘Open source’ doesn’t mean anything to me unless it’s also audited by third party experts, not just talking about Brave right now but just generally. The company can literally just lie about what you’re clicking on, an educated expert who knows what they’re talking about needs to audit the software, I might not understand or see something in the code. At the end of the day you’re clicking on something from a website and downloading it.
Too many times people who have been monitoring or are deep in a field overestimate how much knowledge an average person or even newly interested person has in the same field (oh hey, there’s an xkcd about that!).
People scoffing at anyone who thought Elon Musk was just a meme a nerd CEO before the cave thing, people who expect everyone to know who is running every browser, OS, or other company, and lots of other minor things they think should be common knowledge, when at the time it was something only someone invested in the overall field or someone who knew how search much better than the average person.
I used to use brave when I just started becoming privacy aware. Here are the reasons why:
Now, I use Mercury, a Firefox fork (ikik, it hasn’t seen an update in a long time, shush). I’ve loaded it up with my custom CSS, so its appearance is exactly the way I like.
Mercury has had a open high criticality cve for almost a year and a half now, that is being actively exploited.
Either switch to Firefox or a fork that is actually being maintained, or just block your machine from the Internet.
I agree with all you said, but suggesting to use a specific browser only when not connected to the web is kinda funny.
If you get this level of paranoia, better not to use any FF related browser: https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing
What is paranoia about it?
They are using a browser fork that isn’t being maintained, so any current vulnerabilities it has will likely not be solved, including the one i know of that is currently being exploited and was fixed in firefox over a year ago.
I’m not saying that Firefox and other forks of it won’t get vulnerabilities, but as they are maintained, and this goes especially for Firefox which they are forks of, the vulnerabilities will likely be fixed in a timely manner.
I personally disagree with homophobia but setting that entirely aside, Brave browser sucks, all the cool kids like Vivaldi now, and they’re right
Not even Open Source.
Sometimes I’d prefer a polished product from a company with customers they expect to satisfy rather than a janky free product with ads. Their Leo AI and VPN, though it’s not something most people want, makes it more likely that Brave will have someone to be accountable for
‘Open source’ doesn’t mean anything to me unless it’s also audited by third party experts, not just talking about Brave right now but just generally. The company can literally just lie about what you’re clicking on, an educated expert who knows what they’re talking about needs to audit the software, I might not understand or see something in the code. At the end of the day you’re clicking on something from a website and downloading it.
Too many times people who have been monitoring or are deep in a field overestimate how much knowledge an average person or even newly interested person has in the same field (oh hey, there’s an xkcd about that!).
People scoffing at anyone who thought Elon Musk was just a meme a nerd CEO before the cave thing, people who expect everyone to know who is running every browser, OS, or other company, and lots of other minor things they think should be common knowledge, when at the time it was something only someone invested in the overall field or someone who knew how search much better than the average person.