46
linuxxx
5y

Just decided to try brave browser. Not to actually try it out but to see if it calls home or not and what the default search engine is.

As for a browser which advertises itself as very privacy friendly, I would expect it to not call home and have at least duckuckgo or searx as default search engine.

5-6 calls home every damn time I open it and google is the default search engine.

How the fuck would you call that privacy friendly?!

Comments
  • 8
    I've always wondered the same thing. But they call themselves privacy friendly and they would never lie, right?
  • 4
    Any suspicious hosts it's calling?
  • 4
    @beegC0de Haven't checked all IP addresses but saw some brave.com addresses.

    @epse *cough* right! *cough*
  • 7
    @linuxxx well they have auto update so that's one thing. Also they have sync and some weird alternative ad service. Probably just pings?
  • 6
    @beegC0de That's irrelevant though, it's calling home and I don't want that by default and can't find an option to turn it off.
  • 1
    @linuxxx the mechanic you are looking for is HOSTS

    ...oh wait, root needed, right...
  • 5
    @Parzi I've got root access on my own computer...?
  • 1
    @linuxxx how many times do firefox, chromium call home when launched?
  • 3
    @sSam Firefox once or twice, chromium not sure but they dont advertise as privacy specific browsers.

    And yes, desktop haha! (@RantSomeWhere)
  • 0
    Check if there is any BAT icon or logo in the address bar...... That's why i removed... Didn't like.
  • 2
    @linuxxx Firefox doesn't advertise itself as a privacy specific browser?
  • 1
    @sSam I don't see them claiming that they're the best privacy browser or something similar?
  • 1
    @linuxxx I don't see brave claiming that, but there's screenshot of firefox claiming that.
  • 0
    @RantSomeWhere they have a desktop version?

    Eww.
  • 4
    If I remember correctly there was a story a while ago, about brave browser whitelisting fb and twitter trackers as they claim, that without them the websites wouldn't be accessible for their users (fb/twitter are smart and deliver embeded content through the same domains as trackers and stuff...)
  • 3
    @sSam This is about private browsing, not privacy per-se.

    Brave claims that "you're not the product" which is not literally saying something about privacy but strongly hinting towards it.
  • 0
    If you want to use Chromium you might wanna use "Google Chrome sans integration with Google" or just it's realname "Ungoogled Chromium". Not sure if you know it. It's on GitHuv and you can compile it yourself. Default engine is searx and WebStore functionality, Google Logins, ... have all been removed.
  • 0
    @linuxxx I get that technically it's saying that it won't let websites track you and says nothing about firefox's tracking itself, but that's not what a normal user is going to interpret.

    And "most powerful private browsing" is not hinting towards privacy?
  • 0
    How come you don't have Qwant installed with Brave? No wonder why you sound scared! Just set Qwant (and not that useless ddg thingy), and you're good to go, I promise!

    I used it for 3 or 4 months, now, can't go back to google chrome without having the feeling to walk on used serynges
  • 0
    @Drillan767 Useless ddg thingy? It works perfectly fine for me.

    It's me not about what search engines I can select but about the default set one.
  • 0
    @Drillan767 Also, I host my own searx instance so I use that a lot too :)
  • 0
    @linuxxx Here in France the default search engine set with Brave is Qwant (that's why I'm surprise they suggest you google ._.) Really powerful but has also a lot of flaws (still, it was created only a few years ago so it's still work in progress)
    But I've hardly heard of searx, I'm gonna dig around, I have been disappointed a lot by duckduckgo, forced to use google's researches to find something that seemed obvious at first!
  • 1
    @Drillan767 It's not a recommendation by brave, it's set as the default browser.

    Too bad it isn't working for you :/
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