There is a a lot of misinformation being spread about Brave. Many people claim that it is spyware or harmful to your privacy. This is not true and I will debunk every claim I have found.
DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated with Brave in any way. I rarely even use it.
But Brave is made by an ad company!
An ad company that has worked hard to provide services that do not harm your privacy and they clearly state in their privacy policy that their ads do not track you.
But Brave whitelists Facebook and Twitter trackers!
This is only partly true. Brave whitelists some Facebook and Twitter trackers because blocking them outright would break buttons on some websites (e.g. the Facebook like buttons). Brave is meant to be easy to use, breaking a lot of websites is not easy to use. Brave was never meant to be a max privacy solution.
The whitelist is now optional and can easily be disabled in the settings.
But BAT tracks users!
No it doesn't. This is a misconception from people who have read BAT's home page. The home page says that the user's activites are monitored to award websites with a certain amount of BAT accordingly. Many people think this means Brave is tracking them but it does not. Anyone who has used BAT would know that the browser tracks the amount of time spent on each website locally so it can award websites with the right amount of BAT. The Brave devs do not get any information from this as it is done entirely locally. BTW, "BAT" is a freely convertible cryptocurrency, exchanges can be found here.
Even if you still dislike BAT, you can disable it. It's actually disabled by default. BAT is not the same as the Brave Browser.
But X website said it tracks us!
And X website is most likely full of misinformation. A common website I see posted around is https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave.html. Some of this website's articles are good but a lot of them are just wrong. The website claims that Brave is spyware. It says this because they whitelist some trackers (see above), they have auto-updates that cannot be disabled, they use Google by default, their home page contains analytics, they have crash reports and make some other requests.
Auto-updates are not directly anti-privacy. There is no proof that the Brave team are using this to track you. It cannot be disabled because they are important for security.
Brave uses Google by default because it is meant to be easy to use. Using search engines others may not be familiar with or ones that give worse results will not be easy to use. Again, Brave is not meant to be a maximum privacy solution.
Their home page (their website, not the browser's home page) contains analytics because they want to see what type of users are using their service, how many etc. Analytics are used virtually everywhere and are a nice way to gain information about how much traffic your website is recieving. Additionally, Brave's tracker blocker blocks this tracker anyway.
Crash reports are also not anti-privacy. They are commonly used to help diagnose errors and fix them. They can easily be disabled if needed.
The other requests part is complete nonsense. I have monitored the requests Brave makes and they are very little (only auto-updates). The other requests they mentioned have never appeared. See the photo below for what requests actually happen.
But Brave is based on Chromium!
Chromium is open source and all Google tracking can easily be disabled. Brave strips out all of this by default. Remember that Chromium is not the same as Chrome.
But the lead Brave developer created JavaScript!
JavaScript is used for many purposes and was not created solely to track you. Brendan Eich did not create it for it to be used as a potential tracking tool.
But Brave has a backdoor!
No it doesn't. Brave is open source and there has been no backdoor ever found. Many people claim that Brave being able to use custom HTTP headers are a backdoor but this isn't true. HTTP headers are allowed as per RFC 7231. See Brendan Eich's response to this.
FAQs
Privacy Guides is a non-profit, socially motivated website that provides information for protecting your data security and privacy.
What is data privacy answers? ›
Data privacy is the protection of personal data from those who should not have access to it and the ability of individuals to determine who can access their personal information.
What are the six words about privacy? ›
Truth, Confidence, Stability, Recovery, Secure, Responsible. Privacy is confidence in truth being shared about the stability of what will hold things private.
How do I know if a donation is legit? ›
Research: Always research a group before giving them money. Search for them online. Use a charity evaluator organization such as www.charitynavigator.org to research charitable organizations and obtain contact information. Look for the group's name and see if the words “scam” or “complaint” come up, too.
Who do you contact about privacy questions? ›
The California Privacy Protection Agency's (Agency) mission is to protect consumer privacy, ensure businesses and consumers are well‐informed about their rights and obligations, and vigorously enforce the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
What are not allowed to do with sensitive data? ›
Sensitive data, or sensitive information, should not be changed in transit and should not be able to be altered by unauthorized people (for example when a data breach happens). Examples of integrity countermeasures: File permissions. User access controls.
What would be considered as a data breach? ›
Answer. A data breach occurs when the data for which your company/organisation is responsible suffers a security incident resulting in a breach of confidentiality, availability or integrity.
What are the 4 pillars of privacy? ›
The four pillars of adoption, practice, system, and review are foundational to ensuring preparedness for data privacy within any business organization, especially in the context of complying with regulations like the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, of India.
What is the 12 right to privacy? ›
Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states, “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation.” While there is no single definition of privacy, it stems from the basic idea that individuals ...
What best defines privacy? ›
Broadly speaking, privacy is the right to be let alone, or freedom from interference or intrusion. Information privacy is the right to have some control over how your personal information is collected and used.
And there are different ways to look at privacy, such as: physical privacy (for instance, being frisked at airport security or giving a bodily sample for medical reasons) surveillance (where your identity can't be proved or information isn't recorded) information privacy (how your personal information is handled).
What are the three primary privacy issues? ›
Principal reasons for privacy issues in computing include unauthorized data collection and tracking, intrusive advertising, and surveillance leading to data breaches.
How do I make sure my charity is legitimate? ›
Legitimate charities will provide their EIN if requested, which can be used to verify their legitimacy. Taxpayers can find legitimate and qualified charities with the Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) tool on IRS.gov.
What is trusted source org? ›
TrustedSource is a global threat correlation engine and intelligence base. It follows trends in email, web traffic, and malware, and assigns Web Reputation ratings.
What is Safer Networking org? ›
Safer-Networking has a long experience in malware analysis and security software and offers the award winning anti-malware solution Spybot - Search & Destroy and related tools for home users as well as small businesses to enterprises, schools, universities etc. Website http://www.safer-networking.org/
Is Goldenkey org legit? ›
Golden Key has chapters at over 400 colleges and universities in Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, The Bahamas and the United States. Golden Key is a nonprofit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.
