Brave Browser, A Shot In The Arm For Online Privacy
June 5, 2020The recent news about a $5 billion lawsuit filed against Google over privacy concerns, has us somewhat rattled. Does Google really track one online behavior, even when we’re using incognito mode? As much as it pains us to say this, we have all accepted an unspoken agreement with the Search giant for online access.
We have come to terms with the idea that, in order to enjoy free and unfiltered access to the plethora of tools and platforms on offer, certain sacrifices have to be made. The trade off, results in us feeding tech companies with our online data, and in return, are given access to internet search engines and productivity apps.
The fact that our data is being perpetually harvested and fed to online marketeers should have us worried. That means that privacy while online, is dead.Luckily, there are still ways to circumvent data mining companies from tracking you. The easiest of the lot happens to be the decision to drop Chrome like a bad habit.
We’ve covered a few alternatives to the Chrome browser in a previous article. But as good as they are, these browsers aren’t effective at keeping your browsing history safe. This is where the Brave browser comes in. It has been built with one goal in mind – privacy. Brave has a feature called Shields, which makes it harder for sites to track you.
It blocks ads and trackers, which are a part of many modern websites. In turn, your activities are kept anonymous, and websites load faster. This is possible because there’s less junk to load at any given time. The people behind the Brave browser claim that it’s 6 times faster than Chrome, Safari and Firefox – but take that with a pinch of salt.
In addition to this, Brave’s private mode (incognito mode) utilizes Tor’s network of nodes to help hide your browsing history. This, keeps your data encrypted and away from the prying eyes of online marketing companies. As such, and unlike regular browsers like Safari and Chrome, Brave’s privacy sessions, are actually kept private.
So, if you’ve lost faith in Google Chrome, and would like to ween yourself off of your dependence on the company, the Brave browser might serve you as a step in that direction. It isn’t perfect nor fully private, but its faster and less burdensome on your hardware when compared to the Chrome browser.
