If you’ve been using web browsers like Chrome and Firefox for a while, you probably are tired of ad cookies following you around. To solve this issue of ad bombardment and lack of control on privacy, a new browser called “Brave Browser” has been built. It is a crypto-powered web browser that claims to provide you with privacy. But is Brave browser worth it? Can Brave Browser be trusted? Is it really better than the existing web browsers and is it really ad-free? Let’s find out.
What is Brave Browser?
Initially released in 2019, Brave is an open-source, privacy-first web browser. Developed by Brave Software, Inc., Brave blocks website trackers and online ads by default. It is a unique web browser that also has its search engine and is also called Brave. Created by Brendan Eich (the forger of JavaScript and Co-Founder of the Mozilla Project), Brave focuses on user privacy and aims to redefine how people think about web browsing. It claims to have better privacy features than Firefox and better speed than Chrome. Though the browser blocks websites from tracking you, it rewards you with hard, cold cryptocurrencies for watching ads instead. This is, of course, optional.
Brave rewards its users in BATs
Brave rewards its users for watching advertisements while browsing by choosing to view privacy-preserving ads anonymously. Users can earn revenue in the form of BAT – Basic Attention Token. Again, opting to view ads is optional and you are welcome to leave ads blocked if you wish.
Brave browser has already disrupted the old advertising model of tech giants and is trying to develop more features that return privacy to users.
However, the real question is:
Can brave browser be trusted?
The Brave browser is absolutely safe and secure to use. Initially, its open-source code was scrutinized by technology experts and enthusiasts. However, it is now a safe choice for average users like you and me. Brave is a complete substitute for Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome and provides its users with enhanced privacy and security features along with a browsing experience.
Brave is the most secure web browser for the average user as it blocks ad tracking through public blocklists. Brave also upgrades insecure connections automatically which make the browser super safe to use. It attempts to automatically switch unsafe sites to HTTPS (S represents secure) to make sure that you are communicating with sites through an encrypted connection. How can you know if a website you’re visiting is secure? The lock icon next to the URL bar means that you are using an encrypted connection and you are secure.
With the lack of this security feature, there’s no way to know if you are connected to a legitimate, valid website. For instance, you might think that the website you are on is your bank website. But you might be on a fake website that’s trying to get access to your bank information. When you visit an HTTPS website in the web browser bar, you know for sure that the site is secure and safe because the “HTTPS” security feature verifies the certificate of that website.
The website certificate has to be recognized as well as verified before the Brave browser considers it safe to use. If the certificate is invalid or the Brave browser finds a website or a portion of the website not being served through a secure connection, a “Not Secure” notification will appear in the URL bar.
So, if you were wondering can brave browser be trusted and if it really is secure, you have your answer now.
SEE ALSO: What is Google Privacy Sandbox & its effect on the ad tech industry
Is Brave Browser worth it?
Brave browser is really the fastest browser available out there. The page loading speed of Brave is much faster than competitors as it blocks all the ads, cookies, and scripts. With the other existing web browsers, each web page that loads has to go through pop-ups, flashy banners, and of course, ad trackers before being displayed to the user which slows down everything. As Brace doesn’t have any of these things, you land quickly on the page you want to visit. This is one of the features that makes us say that the Brave browser is worth it.
The Brave is built on Chromium – the free and open-source web browser project developed and maintained by Google. By using Chromium, Brave is available for all devices, including desktops and laptops, and operating systems like Linux, Windows, and macOS.Moreover, the browser is also available for use on iOS and Android devices.
The best part is that it has also been made compatible with the huge extension library on the Chrome Web Store. This means you’ll find all your favourite extensions working just fine when you switch to Brave.
When you bookmark any website or page, you send a signal that the content of the site is valuable. Web browsers that sync bookmarks can also min those votes of confidence. What’s even more valuable is the user’s browsing history and the open tabs. These data points are basically very important and insightful to advertisers.
The Brave browser syncs bookmarks, apps, extensions, browsing history, web browser settings, themes, passwords, open tabs, addresses, and phone numbers using Sync Chains. Through its Sync Chain process, user data is packaged and encrypted on your device through a 24-word seed phrase. This encrypted data block is sent to the servers of Brave periodically. The other devices on the Sync Chain that use the same seed phrase pull updates regularly. What’s best is that the browser does not have access to your synced data at any given point in time.
So, can brave browser be trusted? Yes.
Is Brave browser worth it? Absolutely.
All the above-mentioned (and many other) security and privacy features make the Brave browser trustworthy and worth it. The browser has been co-founded by seasoned technology entrepreneurs, Brendan Eich and Brian Bondy. So, you can rest assured that you are using a high-quality browser.
SEE ALSO: Google Chrome vs Microsoft Edge: Which browser is better?
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Image Courtesy
Featured Image: Brave Software
Image 1: Biljana Jovanovic on Pixabay
