Made the switch from Firefox to Brave Browser after a couple of decades

[Atomicfog]

Wow, I'm making a thread.  This feels so retro.  So yeah, I'm not sure if you guys heard the news about firefox, but yeah, links below about how they don't care about privacy anymore. After two decades, it seems like it's time to switch it up I suppose.  I'm sure some many of you switched awhile back, but I never really liked chrome, and I used brave before, but it didn't do things how I wanted like firefox without manually adjusting it so I stuck with firefox.  

Why did I make this thread though? Because I remember I was literally here at OCR using internet explorer like basically everyone else when firefox came out. And I remember so fondly how hyped every was for it, and couldn't believe how cool tabbed browsing was. Everyone loved the logo as well and the vibe + everything about it.  There are even some old threads still around from the era with people here touting its perks. Firefox was the hip thing and also on another level compared to internet explorer. But yeah, I think a lot of the original threads may not be around and/or were in unmod iirc.  But I remember it all well -- what fun times those were.

Needless to say Brave is pretty good after some adjustments -- smooth scrolling (why is that off anyway?), hiding the number for blocked ads and such, and hiding the tacky basic attention token icon definitely felt necessary.  The only thing that I wish I could adjust it having a file menu -- not because I care about the file menu, but because I don't prefer to have my tabs at the very top of the screen.  I imagine nobody else cares about that, but if you know a work around for that without using a shady extension let me know. 

Anyhow, was fun to write a thread.  Forums are technically still > social media and discord in a lot of ways imo.

 

Also: https://x.com/LundukeJournal/status/1895249805338886591

Edited 19 hours ago by Atomicfog

[DarkeSword]

Hey just so you know, this whole "they don't care about privacy anymore" is 100% fucking nonsense. Mozilla does not say that they can use your data however they want. This is also part of the terms of literally any site you upload anything to; the service needs to say "you grant us the right to do things with your work so that our service can actually function." For example: uploading a picture to Bluesky? Bluesky asserts the right to transform your work so that they can generate a thumbnail of the picture you uploaded.

That's what these terms always mean. It's never about a service or a piece of software asserting ownership of your data. It's about you granting them a baseline level of permissions so that they can actually do the things you need them to do with the data you give them. This type of "company is stealing your work" scaremongering makes the rounds every few months in art communities and every single time someone has to clarify that companies are not stealing your work.

Mozilla is not claiming ownership of your work. Mozilla is not throwing privacy to the winds.

Instead of watching a clickbait video that perpetuates the same stupid misunderstandings, maybe go directly to the source and actually read what Mozilla has to say about it?

Also, Brave is the second-to-last browser you should be using (behind Chrome). Brave has engaged with scummy shit such as:

• Replacing ads on pages with its own ads and taking a cut
• Putting their own affiliate links in search suggestions
• Installing a VPN on Windows without notifying users
• Numerous partnerships with cryptocurrency firms

If you want a reliable browser that's not Firefox, there are plenty of options like Orion, Waterfox, Ungoogled Chromium, Arc, etc.

Brave is not it.

EDIT: But also just keep using Firefox.

[Atomicfog]

Interesting.  Well I definitely respect your take and I'm definitely not saying I shouldn't examine things further. Looking into it more this stuff, overall, its probably more complex than I cared to really examine thoroughly. Part of that though is because, there a few things, on a surface level that rub me the wrong way about what they did in a way that doesn't feel superficial -- I feel like you get a 'spidey sense' for this stuff after enough dealing with enough nonsense.  Their statement that you linked reads as really "fluffy" and doesn't address anything specifically.  In my opinion, and I could be wrong, their change of terms could be a catch all so that they can put your data into a training data set for an ai and/or to allow the possibility for this while they shop around -- which is not something I want to support if so. 

When I look at Firefox's "how your data is shared" section linked as an attachment it seems to affirm that is a likely possibility. Not only that, everything in that section really implies they can give your data to almost anyone -- or that's what it feels like.  Their language seems intentionally open-ended even though I know at least some of that is likely to reduce liability for reasonable things. Meanwhile though, brave seems more clear with their privacy policies and outright says they don't buy or sell users data and don't keep any record of your browsing history.  

Meanwhile, firefox deleted their promise not to sell user data: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/02/firefox-deletes-promise-to-never-sell-personal-data-asks-users-not-to-panic/   If that isn't sketch, then I don't know what is.

So what I'll say is when initially examined this topic I felt like -- maybe this is just other companies like brave using social media to make a big deal out this so you switch to their browser.  And maybe it is that.  But looking into the details it still seems like a big mistake in terms of what firefox did on multiple levels -- and on top of that if they did want to use what you write as training data they could easily argue that processing user data falls under "helping you navigate, experience, and interact with online content." At least it seems that way to someone like myself who isn't a legal expert.

Also, if you don't mind me asking, what browser do you prefer?  When I looked into the other options you mentioned, Orion is just for mac, Waterfox is "owned by System1, a company involved in data analytics, raising concerns about potential conflicts with privacy goals" + their tacking protections seem weaker by default, and their default search engine is bing which doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.  Ungoogled chromium is actually pretty cool after looking into it, but aside from the face that is needs extra configuration to work like brave -- I don't like that it doesn't have automatic updates as that makes staying secure a lot smoother. I check out Arc browser as well, but it makes you sign up for an account to use, isn't as security oriented as brave, and has really ugly logo.

 

Anyhow, I'm curious what you think of this stuff and I do appreciate your take. Of course, you don't have debunk anything here or give your opinion.  But it does sound like you know some things about this topic that I probably don't.  After look into things a bit more, but really just scratching the surface -- I still feel like brave is the best option and from what I read the flaws you mentioned were mildly petty, but minor things and the vpn thing wasn't enabled be default though I suppose that would be the worst ding against them?  I'd be glad to find a justification to use firefox and/or a better browser though -- I don't think I've seen it yet though.  I wish firefox just kept things how they were and/or were extra transparent and in-depth about the reason for these changes.

 

PS My bad if I rambled a bit here -- but the topic has a fair bit of depth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited just now by Atomicfog