I don’t know many people in my family and friend circle who use Brave as their default web browser. The closest to me that does is my partner, and that’s where I got the last push to try Brave.
I spent a few weeks with Brave as my default web browser, ditching Google Chrome. I’ll admit I did miss Chrome, especially during the first few days, but Brave gradually drew me in with its unique features.
Brave offers plenty of things to love, but it’s certainly not for everyone. For anyone who does casual web browsing and enjoys deep Google integration, Brave isn’t for them unless they are willing to make the compromise.
My partner also warned me about this, but I wasn’t bothered because I wasn’t planning to switch to Brave for good, anyway. It was always meant to be a temporary affair.
However, I never thought I’d continue using it as the default browser for this long. It’s making me ditch Chrome, and at the core of why I’m sticking with it is its cookie-blocking power.
I tried to de-Google my phone using only open source apps, and only 2 survived
I went Google-free for 7 days and it nearly broke me
Brave’s cookie-blocking power is the best I have ever seen
And it does make a difference
The ability to block cookies isn’t exclusive to Brave. When I used Chrome as my default web browser, I never allowed third-party cookies.
In Chrome, I went to Settings, clicked the Privacy and security option, chose Third-party cookies, and selected Block third-party cookies. That’s all it took.
I forgot I had to block cookies from settings when I switched to Brave, but in the end, it didn’t even matter. That’s where Brave shines. It blocks third-party cookies by default, which is exactly the opposite of Chrome.
This means cross-site tracking mostly stops, and ads are less personalized on Brave from the get-go.
So, even if you search for something really embarrassing on the internet on the Brave browser, it’ll have less influence on the kind of ads you see on other websites.
In a way, this cuts down the need to switch to Incognito every time you want to search for something you don’t want to impact ads later.
It may feel redundant for anyone who doesn’t want ads to show up. But for those with Trackers and ads blocking set to Disabled or Standard, third-party cookie blocking comes in handy.
If you wish to change any of these, you can quickly do so without visiting Brave’s settings page. You can change your Cookie and ad-blocking rules right from Shields, without leaving the current web page you are viewing.
On top of third-party cookies, the Brave browser does a pretty good job of blocking cookie consent notices, especially after it made Cookiecrumbler, a tool that detects cookie consent notices across the web, open source last year.
Since those cookie consent notices don’t appear, there is no chance of you falling prey to consent systems that still track people even after rejecting all cookies.
These are strong, very strong cookie-blocking measures, which have a direct impact on privacy, and there is nothing quite like them.
Brave is more open about cookies and privacy than Google
Both Google Chrome and Brave are based on the open source Chromium engine, so there are a lot of similarities. However, when it comes to privacy, they don’t appear to have the same backbone.
Brave is more open about cookies and their impact on your privacy. This is no surprise, as privacy protection was the primary motivation behind the creation of Brave in 2015.
We can see how serious Brave is about privacy in the setup process as well as in the Settings. I found mention of the word “privacy” four times in Chrome settings, while Brave mentions the word seven times.
I also love how Brave explicitly labels Cookies and other site data in the On exit tab of the Delete browsing data setting. It’s more transparent than Chrome, which buries it under a broader label: data saved to your device.
In Chrome, it’s also very difficult to find the setting that enables the browser to automatically delete data that sites have saved to your device when you close all your windows.
In contrast, you can quickly find the settings on the Privacy and security page in the Brave browser. Find and tap the Delete browsing data option in Brave and choose what you want to clear on exit.
Nothing related to privacy, including cookies, is hidden deep inside Settings, unlike Google Chrome.
Privacy takes center stage in Brave
Brave is all about protecting users’ privacy. It follows multiple techniques, including advanced ones like fingerprinting blocking, to ensure users’ privacy isn’t compromised.
The browser also blocks trackers by default to protect users’ privacy. This has a direct impact on the loading speed of websites. Websites that are ad-heavy load faster in Brave.
Brave’s speed and privacy are making me look down upon Chrome. The only thing holding me back from a complete change of heart is the deep Google integration in Chrome.
