Privacy Guides @lemmy.one qwert230839265026494 @sh.itjust.works 1y ago

Chromium vs Brave

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/5572424

This might have been discussed to death by now, unfortunately I couldn't find any discussion on it on Lemmy. Though I would love to be corrected on that!

How does an always on incognito Chromium with uBlock Origin on medium mode (and other hardening/privacy settings enabled) compare to Brave (with e.g. Privacy Guides' recommended settings) with respect to security and privacy on Linux^[1]?

Commonly heard whataboutisms:

"With the looming advent of Manifest v3, this discussion might not be very relevant for long." I'm aware.

"Just use Firefox/Librewolf or any other privacy-conscious browser that isn't Chromium-based." I already do, but some websites/platforms don't play nice on non-Chromium-based browsers due to Google's monopoly on the web. Sometimes I can afford to not use that website/platform, but unfortunately not always.

"Brave's [insert controversy] makes them unreliable to take services from." Honestly, I think that if both solutions are as effective that a reason like this might be sufficient to tip the balance in favor of one. Because ultimately this all comes down to trust.

"Just use Ungoogled Chromium." Some more knowledgeable people than me advice against it. Though, I'd say I'm open to hear different opinions on this as long as they're somewhat sophisticated.

"Just use [insert another Chromium-based browser]." If it has merits beyond Brave and Chromium with respect to security and privacy, I'll consider it.

Thanks in advance!

I can be more specific about which distro I prefer using, but I don't think it matters. I might be wrong though*.

47 comments

firefox/librewolf
- firefox/librewolf
  
  “Just use Firefox/Librewolf or any other privacy-conscious browser that isn’t Chromium-based.” I already do, but some websites/platforms don’t play nice on non-Chromium-based browsers due to Google’s monopoly on the web. Sometimes I can afford to not use that website/platform, but unfortunately not always.
  
  😅. Thanks anyways 👍.
  
  I have only seen people saying this, but have never come across such a website that does not work properly on Firefox.
  
  I have only seen the issue that Jitsi does not support e2ee on Firefox.
Brave is a buggy browser from a scummy company.
- Brave is a buggy browser
  
  Honestly my experience on Brave (on Fedora) hasn't been great 😅. So I can definitely attest to that. I'm willing to deal with it as long as its merits are substantial, which so far seem to be the case 😭. But thank you for confirming that I'm not the only that has experienced difficulties while using it!
- I've only ever had issues with the sync feature. I see many people have issues with rewards but I'm not into monetisation and have always just disabled the rewards part of it.
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop-browsers/

The privacy guides article does discuss brave in detail.
Cromite is a fork of the seemingly-abandoned Bromite, which used to be the only browser recommended by GrapheneOS (other than their own Vanadium). It's relatively new though so I don't think that much has been written about it for comparison.
- Thanks a lot for mentioning this! I didn't know someone took over the good work from Bromite. I'll definitely check into it! Am I correct to assume that (like Bromite), this is a browser exclusively meant to be used on Android devices? I guess I might get it to work on Waydroid as well, not sure if I would like to commit to that yet though. Nonetheless, this input of yours has been much appreciated!
  
  Iirc cromite supports Android and windows ATM. Check the repo here: https://github.com/uazo/cromite
  
  Updating using obtanium works good.
  
  Ah, I missed the part where you said "Linux", sorry!
- Chromite/Bromite is primarily an android browser, even on windows it looks and behaves just like a mobile app.
  
  Whilst I like the feature set as an alternative to Brave the fact they refuse to fix the PWA situation as it's "Of no interest" to the dev is a no go for me.
  
  Ah, I missed the part in the OP where it said "Linux", whoops
Ungoogled chromium isn't as bad as the post makes it seem. Most of the described issues aren't a risk on any modern operating system, and a quick google search finds you an extension that re enables updates and the chrome web store
- Did you mean this "chromium-web-store" extension?
  
  I'm not at my pc rn, but that looks like the one I'm running. Tho the updates are semi auto according to the readme
I've used brave since it came out. I use tampermonkey, edit this cookie and bitwarden extensions. Additionally I use pihole/unbound+roothints.

I tend not to let Brendan's controversies affect my choice because if I did I'd have to avoid JavaScript.

Brave provides me with a more secure chrome with extra bells and whistles. I'm a heavy user of app windows as I refuse to use electron based apps due them being pure chrome. When other browsers do this with the same protection as brave I'll consider moving.
- ~~Brendan’s~~ Brave's controversies
  
  I assume?
  
  app widows
  
  A google search didn't give me any useful pointers. Did you perhaps meant to convey PWAs?
  
  I mentioned Brendan specifically because people like to lump in his flaws as reasons for not using brave in these discussions.
  
  Yes I was referring to pwa's, ssb's, app windows, whatever you want to call them. Firefox used to have xulrunner and prism to provide them but now Firefox doesn't provide a way other than a JavaScript popup via bookmarklet.

47 comments