Blog category

Policy & legislation

Research Paper: Privacy and Security Issues in Web 3.0

Sep 21, 2021

We at Brave Research just published a technical report called “Privacy and Security Issues in Web 3.0” on arXiv. This blog post summarizes our findings and puts them in perspective for Brave users.

Why Brave Disables FLoC

Apr 12, 2021

Brave opposes FLoC, a recent Google proposal that would have your browser share your browsing behavior and interests by default with every site and advertiser with which you interact.

Comparing the Network Behavior of Popular Browsers on First-Run

Mar 8, 2021

You can learn quite a bit about a browser from observing the requests it makes in its first moments with a new user profile. Often, a cursory examination will tell you a great deal about how the browser thinks about, and handles, user privacy and security.

Updates from Brave Research

Aug 31, 2020

Brave Research is a highly dynamic team of researchers and developers whose goal is to push the envelope when it comes to some of the more adventurous aspects and needs of the Brave browser and the underlying ecosystem.

Browser First-Run: iOS Edition

Apr 24, 2020

Last year I did a review of several popular desktop browsers, focusing exclusively on what they do when you launch the browser for the first time. Today I decided to take a look at various browsers available on iOS 13…

The ICO’s failure to act on RTB, the largest data breach ever recorded in the UK

Jan 17, 2020

The ICO has today announced that it will be taking no substantive action to fix "RTB", the largest data breach ever recorded in the UK. Regulatory ambivalence cannot continue. We are considering all options to put an end to the systemic breach, including direct challenges to the controllers and judicial oversight of the ICO. 

Brave Software Finds 82% of People Wish the Web Were More Privacy-Oriented

Nov 13, 2019

Brave exposes an inflection point in the online ecosystem, with more users feeling increasingly concerned with protecting their online privacy and fed up with big tech. Whether due to recent data privacy investigations, high-profile breaches, or emerging government regulations, online privacy is a rising concern for users across the nation. According to a new survey of 1,500 U.S. web users conducted by Brave Software, 76 percent of users feel more concerned with protecting their online privacy than they did one year ago, and 88 percent wish they had more control over how large companies like Google and Facebook use their personal data. It’s time for a change.

Accurately Predicting Ad Blocker Savings

Oct 21, 2019

We have written before on Brave’s performance, energy and bandwidth benefits for the user. Brave Shields is our primary mechanism for protecting user privacy, but many users know by now that ad and tracker blocking (or just ad blocking for short) makes the web faster and generally better for them. So far Brave’s estimates of the users’ time saved have been very conservative and somewhat naive: we take the total number of ads and trackers blocked, and multiply that by 50 milliseconds.