Brave browser

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jballi
Posts: 723
Joined: 29 Sep 2013, 17:34

Brave browser

Post by jballi » 09 May 2022, 11:02

Last month, John Oliver did a story on data brokers and how much they know about us and what they are doing with our personal data. If you haven't seen it, it's worth the watch.

Data Brokers: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqn3gR1WTcA

A few weeks after I saw this story, I read something about the Brave web browser. The browser, by default, automatically blocks online advertisements and website trackers. I just started to use it on my home computer. I was astonished by the number of trackers, advertisements, and pop-up windows that were automatically blocked. For example, on www.nbcnews.com, Brave was able to block more than 100 advertisements and trackers. On YouTube.com I can watch videos without advertisements. It is amazing how much life is better without those f##king YouTube advertisements.

I also installed Brave on my Android phone and made it the default browser. Previously, I had the YouTube app installed on my phone. I never opened it to watch videos but I would often click a link that would open the YouTube app to show a video. I hated it because there were a bazillion advertisements. I disabled the YouTube app (can't delete it but you can disable it). Now that Brave is my default browser, when I click on a YouTube link it opens YouTube in Brave and I'm able to watch videos without advertisements.

Although I'm still in transition, my experience (so far) has been very positive. Brave is built using Chromium so if you use Chrome, switching should be a snap.


Just in case you want to download it...

Download Brave
https://brave.com/download/

garry
Posts: 3737
Joined: 22 Dec 2013, 12:50

Re: Brave browser

Post by garry » 10 May 2022, 07:57

@jballi thank you , Chrome with addon 'uBlock origin' works also fine . I like also to download some youtube videos as MP4 or MP3 ( used yt-dlp.exe )
Last edited by garry on 10 May 2022, 13:22, edited 1 time in total.

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jballi
Posts: 723
Joined: 29 Sep 2013, 17:34

Re: Brave browser

Post by jballi » 10 May 2022, 12:37

garry wrote:
10 May 2022, 07:57
I like also to download some youtube videos as MP4 or MP3 .
I use 3D Youtube Downloader to download YouTube videos without the advertisements. It allows you to download the videos in many different quality levels (480p, 720p, etc.) It also allows you to download just the audio. I haven't played around with that part much so I don't know how well it works.

Just in case you want to download the program...

3D Youtube Downloader
https://yd.3dyd.com/

garry
Posts: 3737
Joined: 22 Dec 2013, 12:50

Re: Brave browser

Post by garry » 10 May 2022, 13:23

@jballi thank you , I used commandline in ahk scripts with yt-dlp.exe

william_ahk
Posts: 481
Joined: 03 Dec 2018, 20:02

Re: Brave browser

Post by william_ahk » 19 May 2022, 20:33

I'm not so sure about all that earning crypto coin by browsing and internal ads though. Brave still doesn't look privacy-friendly to me.
For blocking ads and trackers I use uBlock Origin. Haven't seen YouTube ads for like, ten years probably? :D For Android there's NewPipe, which is open-source as well.

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jballi
Posts: 723
Joined: 29 Sep 2013, 17:34

Re: Brave browser

Post by jballi » 21 May 2022, 04:51

william_ahk wrote:
19 May 2022, 20:33
I'm not so sure about all that earning crypto coin by browsing and internal ads though. Brave still doesn't look privacy-friendly to me.
I'm still evaluating Brave, but my opinion has not changed (yet). I still like it. The "earning crypto coin by browsing and internal ads" is a part of Brave Rewards. Since April 2019, users can opt in to Brave Rewards which enables users to earn Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) as a reward for viewing privacy-preserving ads. This is how Brave earns their money but it is 100% optional. Most users, myself included, do not participate.
william_ahk wrote:
19 May 2022, 20:33
For blocking ads and trackers I use uBlock Origin. [snip] For Android there's NewPipe, which is open-source as well.
I like Brave because it automatically blocks online advertisements and website trackers. No need to install an extension in Windows or on Android. Extensions are no big deal for most computers today but in the past some were memory and resource hogs. I remember when I had to remove most of my extensions because they were using more resources than I could spare.

Is Brave just as good as uBlock Origin? I'm still testing but the results are very positive. In most cases, the results are at least as good as uBlock Origin. I found one test web site where you can test your ad block. I get a 91% block rate with Brave and with uBlock Origin.

https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock.html

If you or anyone has a link to other ad blocking tests, please post them!

william_ahk
Posts: 481
Joined: 03 Dec 2018, 20:02

Re: Brave browser

Post by william_ahk » 21 May 2022, 06:50

@jballi It is optional yes, but that sort of thing is integrated within the browser, which gave me some big bro vibes when I first installed it :shock:
In my opinion it should be an extension that's removable at least.
The "battery-included" privacy is nice, I think under the default settings (without adding custom filters) Brave should be doing more work than uBlock Origin. But what determines the effectiveness is really just the filter lists. One other thing that made me not to use Brave is that it takes up more resources than Chrome. It sure is taking up much more resource than an extension like uBlock Origin.

Ben the Coder

Re: Brave browser

Post by Ben the Coder » 24 Jul 2022, 09:49

Bing can display YouTube videos with no ads, and you can use it with any browser, (just set the search engine to be Bing).
You can also hover over videos and Bing will play it (with volume).
I have switched over to Bing, and I think it's great!
Apparently, "Bing gets better with Edge as they work together to create a more personalized experience for you." I tried this theory, and it's correct as some Microsoft products will not work in other browsers (because Microsoft wants you to use their browser and search engine)!

brownharris561
Posts: 3
Joined: 05 Sep 2022, 03:35

Re: Brave browser

Post by brownharris561 » 08 Sep 2022, 03:23

Instead of using Brave browser, you can install the ad-blocker extension to any browser (like chrome, mozilla, opera) and block youtube ads easily.

Ben the Coder

Re: Brave browser

Post by Ben the Coder » 12 Sep 2022, 09:37

brownharris561 wrote:
08 Sep 2022, 03:23
Instead of using Brave browser, you can install the ad-blocker extension to any browser (like chrome, mozilla, opera) and block youtube ads easily.
Yup.
That's true.

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A Keymaker
Posts: 454
Joined: 31 May 2022, 13:46
Location: Donjon du Château de Mérovingien

Re: Brave browser

Post by A Keymaker » 26 Jul 2023, 04:13

jballi wrote:
10 May 2022, 12:37
garry wrote:
10 May 2022, 07:57
I like also to download some youtube videos as MP4 or MP3 .
I use 3D Youtube Downloader to download YouTube videos without the advertisements
[...]
After the great YouTube Video And Audio Downloader (Dev Edt.) add-on in Firefox became dead I started using 4K Video Downloader, which sometimes is extremely fast and can be tasked with whole playlists and channels. Many other add-ons and programs were just plain bad or not a freeware

But this is getting off-stopic

User avatar
A Keymaker
Posts: 454
Joined: 31 May 2022, 13:46
Location: Donjon du Château de Mérovingien

Re: Brave browser

Post by A Keymaker » 26 Jul 2023, 04:18

brownharris561 wrote:
08 Sep 2022, 03:23
Instead of using Brave browser, you can install the ad-blocker extension to any browser (like chrome, mozilla, opera) and block youtube ads easily.
But Google / Alphabet wants now to crack down on add-blockers. In the test phase randomly selected users are supposedly to receive warnings and then some kind of blockade, which will be lifted if they buy Premium

So I wonder if Brave inner-workings will be able to fool this system


I would gladly switch to using it on a daily basis, but I have so many useful add-ons in my Firefox. But then again: with each major update more and more of them become incompatible

rockitdontstopit
Posts: 65
Joined: 12 Nov 2022, 15:47

Re: Brave browser

Post by rockitdontstopit » 14 Aug 2023, 14:41

Brave is a great browser. Been using it for about 2 years or so. Yes, it has a "shitcoin" associated with it, but I still like it.

Make sure you back up your Brave user files so you won't lose tokens if your computer crashes. Robocopy in windows is awesome for lightning fast backups.

Youtube ad free is VERY nice. Although I was getting video ads the other night. Never happened before, but I think it's fixed now. Always going to get those ads on the upper right corner, however. Been using this downloader for well over 5 years. Always works, always updated.
https://www.youtubedownloaderhd.com/download.html

xgecemx
Posts: 1
Joined: 16 Aug 2023, 13:01

Re: Brave browser

Post by xgecemx » 16 Aug 2023, 13:05

Thanks for sharing this insightful breakdown of your experience using the Brave browser! I appreciate you spreading the word about tools that can help protect people's privacy.

The data broker industry is incredibly opaque and unregulated, so it's alarming how much of our personal information is being bought and sold without our knowledge or consent, as John Oliver covered. I'm glad his piece shed light on this issue.

Installing Brave to automatically block ads and trackers is an empowering way to take control of our data. Seeing the hundreds of trackers on a single website is eye-opening, and really shows the value in Brave's approach. Plus, ad-free YouTube is a total game changer!

Disabling the YouTube app on your phone in favor of Brave is clever too. Redirecting those video links cuts out the pesky ads at their source. Kudos on finding ways to optimize your mobile experience.

The web browsing landscape today is unfortunately dominated by privacy invasion and clutter. But tools like Brave give me hope that we can shift the balance in favor of users taking ownership of their data. I appreciate you spreading awareness of Brave's capabilities, and may have to try it out myself soon! Keep up the advocacy.

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