I have seen many people in this community either talking about switching to Brave, or people who are actively using Brave. I would like to remind people that Brave browser (and by extension their search engine) is not privacy-centric whatsoever.
Brave was already ousted as spyware in the past and the company has made many decisions that are questionable at best. For example, Brave made a cryptocurrency which they then added to a rewards program that is built into the browser to encourage you to enable ads that are controlled by Brave.
Edit: Please be aware that the spyware article on Brave (and the rest of the browsers on the site) is outdated and may not reflect the browser as it is today.
After creating this cryptocurrency and rewards program, they started inserting affiliate codes into URL’s. Prior to this they had faked fundraising for popular social media creators.
Do these decisions seem like ones a company that cares about their users (and by extension their privacy) would make? I’d say the answer is a very clear no.
One last thing, Brave illegally promoted an eToro affiliate program making a fortune from its users who will likely lose their money.
Edit: To the people commenting saying how Brave has a good out-of-the-box experience compared to other browsers, yes, it does. However, this is not a warning for your average person, this is a warning for people who actively care about their privacy and don’t mind configuring their browser to maximize said privacy.
I admit to using Windows, however I don’t use stock Windows. The version of Windows I use has made the telemetry and such as minimized as possible. The only reason I haven’t switched to Linux is because I still rely on some programs that don’t have great Linux alternatives. Just because you are running an OS that isn’t the most privacy-centric doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about privacy at all.
That is true but Windows is a privacy nightmare. You may be able to mitigate the problem but it’s still windows. When your house is on fire and you tell people to please not use candles, you are technically correct because of course we don’t want more fire but does it really matter?
It’s more like when your house is on fire and you tell people not to throw gasoline on it. Adding even more privacy risks doesn’t make sense.
Edit: typo