this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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From article:

If you have the Brave Browser installed on your Windows devices, then you may also have Brave VPN services installed on the machine. Brave installs these services without user consent on Windows devices.

More reason to ditch the crypto bro browser.

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[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 75 points 10 months ago (1 children)

ugh, don't touch my network stack

[–] funkajunk@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Not that I'm defending anybody but how is this touching your "network stack" any more than any other application?

[–] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 12 points 10 months ago (3 children)

because a VPN is both a new network interface, and it has the ability to change how your traffic routes. Most applications don't do that.

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[–] Engywuck@lemm.ee 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (9 children)

https://old.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/17b0pxl/brave_appears_to_install_vpn_services_without/k5kwd97/

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/33726

And crypto are disabled by default.

No, I wont' ditch it. It's the best browser out there, right now, since scummy/corrupt/hypocrite Mozilla (which, remember, is in bed with Google, Amazon and Facebook while criticizing them) decided that Firefox is just a side project for them and they're deceiving people making them believe that donations fund FF development.

Don't even bother to reply. I'm not going to fuel this shitty thread any further.

[–] WastedJobe@feddit.de 122 points 10 months ago (2 children)

"In bed with"=takes their money to have their search engine and lets you change it in 30 seconds while being completely open source

I don't see the problem.

[–] 30p87@feddit.de 35 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Norgur@kbin.social 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fine, for you I'll do it in 4!

[–] 30p87@feddit.de 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

0.980s by using ydotool key 29:1 20:1 20:0 29:0 -d 0 && ydotool type "about>preferences\n" -d 0 && sleep 0.26 && ydotool type "search engine\t" -d 0 && ydotool key 103:1 103:0 -d 20

[–] flora_explora@beehaw.org 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Tbf, changing the default search engine probably has the effect that the vast majority of users will stick with it. So, although it is pretty easy for you and me to change the search engine, it still promotes Google quite a lot and thus undermines the independent character of Firefox as a whole.

[–] WastedJobe@feddit.de 32 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Absolutely. I would prefer they didn't have google as the default, but I'd rather have Firefox with good funding and google as default than firefox with very little funding.

[–] flora_explora@beehaw.org 3 points 10 months ago

That's a fair point, yes

[–] pixel@beehaw.org 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And brave being built on chromium is somehow markedly better?

[–] flora_explora@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago

I wasn't defending chromium or brave, not even commenting on them at all. I was just adding a caveat to what the other commenter said about Firefox.

[–] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 84 points 10 months ago (3 children)
[–] goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'd say so

https://lemm.ee/comment/4924770

solution that wipes the extremely profitable, For-Profit, Mozilla Corporation off your Internet

Mozilla should be removed from the entire internet but hey, it's a beginning.

[–] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 13 points 10 months ago

Does anyone want to switch seats!?! looks around nervously

[–] toothpicks@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago

I'm rickety AF

[–] Norgur@kbin.social 74 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No one told you to ditch it. But can you fanboii a little less aggressively, please?

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@beehaw.org 61 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Have you ever interacted with a Brave user? No, they can't.

[–] interolivary@beehaw.org 34 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I swear they all have some sort of brain slug that makes them cultish and just generally unlikeable

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@beehaw.org 32 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you look at what a raging tool the CEO is and the implications of the browser's association with crypto (no matter how optional), I think that Brave just attracts that type of person

[–] beefcat@beehaw.org 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Makes sense given that the Brave CEO is a member of an actual cult.

[–] renard_roux@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] beefcat@beehaw.org 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

the mormon church. it’s the reason he donates money to anti-lgbt causes.

[–] pbjamm@beehaw.org 4 points 10 months ago

Thought for sure the answer was going to be the Cult of Crypto

[–] sculd@beehaw.org 3 points 10 months ago

I actually didn't know that when I opened this thread!!!

[–] Rikj000@discuss.tchncs.de 69 points 10 months ago (1 children)

True open source projects like LibreWolf, Ungoogled Chromium > Sketchy world of Brave

[–] ByteWelder@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I applaud LibreWolf’s efforts, but the hard-coded timezone makes it unusable for me. Other than that, it’s a great browser. I used it several months until the timezone confusion got the best of me.

[–] klangcola@reddthat.com 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

What's the deal with the timezone?

[–] ByteWelder@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 months ago

If I recall correctly, it was meant as a measure against fingerprinting. It’s basically one less thing to uniquely define a user based on the info that the browser gives to a website. I’m not sure if it’s still like that, cause it’s been easily a year since I used LibreWolf.

[–] baggins@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yes, what is the deal? I can't say that I've noticed any issues. Am in UK if that makes a difference. And I usually run it through Proton VPN.

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

While I’ve never used LibreWolf before (I use Waterfox), that probably does make a difference as the UK is UTC+0.

[–] Rikj000@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I switched to LibreWolf after I learned that Waterfox was/is ran by an advertisement company.

Today they should be independant again, however my trust in them is forever lost.

https://discuss.techlore.tech/t/waterfox-regains-independence-abandoning-the-advertising-company-system1/4594

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I do not subscribe to guilt by association or being that concerned about privacy.

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[–] abhibeckert@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Two issues.

First of all a lot of websites show times in your current timezone. Beehaw for example says you wrote your post "2 days ago". Depending what timezone my browser is in, that could display 3 days or 1 day. When I hover over it, it shows the exact date/time in my timezone. Which is handy.

Second it doesn't actually achieve the intended goal. Even if you use a VPN chances are you've set it to give you a public IP address close to you to have good performance. And if your IP address is in Proton's London datacentre but your timezone is UTC+0 when everyone else is UTC+1... well you stand out like a single black sheep in a flock of white ones and ad networks are absolutely fingerprinting you with that.

[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 58 points 10 months ago

It's still a behavior like "we are the best software in the world, once we get admin permission we can do whatever we want without additional user consent, people appreciate it".

No. You must ask permission to install useless Windows services, even if they're disabled.

[–] lukini@beehaw.org 42 points 10 months ago

Don't even bother to reply. I'm not going to fuel this shitty thread any further.

Nah I'm gonna pile on. Firefox is better.

[–] unreliable@discuss.tchncs.de 39 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You a full of mins information that only benefit google having full internet monopoly. Brave is chrome. Chrome is google.

[–] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 29 points 10 months ago

You’re the one who made it shitty. But much to crap on the bed then get up and leave.

[–] DidacticDumbass@lemmy.one 9 points 10 months ago

Somehow I trust Opera and Microsoft over Brave as this point.

What a world.

[–] toothpicks@beehaw.org 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

None of these companies know the first thing about consent, it's disgusting

[–] toothpicks@beehaw.org 3 points 10 months ago

Just because I bought something from you doesn't mean I consent to you penetrating my inbox

[–] penquin@lemmy.kde.social 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] Jaxseven@beehaw.org 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

What's the difference from Chromium? Main "selling" point?

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[–] MikaTech@beehaw.org 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm considering it, but how does thorium handle Google's recent Web manifest updates that break true ad blockers like uBlock origin?

I've been pretty happy with the customizability of librefox with the userchrome.css and ublock still works with YouTube.

[–] penquin@lemmy.kde.social 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Well, you have two options. The same developer of thorium does have a Firefox one and it's called mercury. Blazing fast, too. Or you can install adblock detection bypass extension on thorium. It is an extension that's made to work with chrome alongside ublock origin to bypass YouTube adblock detection. In fact, I literally just ran into that issue today and the other extension fixed it.

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