Brave is an internet browser that prioritizes privacy. In an industry where user information is treated as a commodity, Brave is taking a step in the opposite direction and handing control of that information to the users instead.
Best-in-class Privacy
Privacy is the Brave browser’s main focus. Tired of being tracked across the internet? Brave blocks trackers like no other by using a system that operates on a Basic Attention Token (BAT) to improve the ad experience for advertisers and users alike. Built on Ethereum, the BAT system aims to incentivize all parties involved in internet advertisement while improving the user’s experience.
This system is a little bit complicated on the surface, but basically, it works like this: rather than letting third-party systems track your information, Brave collects only the necessary data and stores it privately instead of selling it off to other parties. This effectively cuts out the middleman and instead allows advertisers to provide more relevant ads at a lower frequency.
Not only does this mean you get less junk, but it circumvents the monetary issue of ad blockers while compensating not just the advertisers, but you as well. That’s right. By signing up for Brave Rewards, you even get compensated for your attention. What’s not to love?
And that’s just one way Brave stops trackers on your browser. By default, it also blocks other trackers across the web, and it also reduces your browser’s “fingerprint” while browsing the internet. Your fingerprint is a set of defining characteristics of your browser’s settings and browsing tendencies which companies can use to track you even when other browsers block trackers. Unlike most browsers, Brave artificially randomizes these characteristics to even further mask your identity on the web.
Brave not only protects you from other companies tracking you, but they also have measures in place to ensure that not even they have too much access to your information. All browsers report back to their database to check for updates and such, but the Brave browser limits that activity to keep your data private.
It even allows native access to Tor browsing, a government-developed browser that brings a whole new level to anonymous internet browsing.
Several other more technical features, such as query parameter filtering and some under-the-hood Chromium optimizations, are also in place to further protect your privacy.
Additional features
Although privacy is the main point of interest with Brave, it has plenty of other features to keep up with the competition as well.
According to Brave’s own speed tests, it can load pages up to six times faster than some competing browsers. It also matches some other common feature sets such as the option to import settings and bookmarks when switching to Brave.
A few other handy tricks are the ability to pin tabs in the browser, support for many Chrome extensions, and default support for more private search options. Ultimately, though, it’s clear what its main purpose is: if privacy is your concern, look no further than Brave.
