Years ago, a family member grabbed my laptop and added a bunch of anti-tracking extensions.
Pop-ups were blocked. Nefarious websites were avoided. Everything worked great, except when it didn’t.
There were times when I actually wanted a pop-up window, thanks. Sometimes my browser would slow to a crawl. And Firefox, my browser of choice, just didn’t work with every site.
Recently I asked that same family member, who works in cybersecurity, for a privacy-focused browser. His immediate answer was Brave.
I wanted to see if I could use the Brave browser the same way I use Firefox or Chrome. That is, without really thinking about it.
Most of the time, it delivered, but there are a few areas where it falls short.
It’s easy to use right away
You don’t need to fiddle with a million settings
Brave has a lot of privacy features baked in, so you don’t need to spend much time messing with the settings before you use it.
For example, third-party cookies are automatically blocked. Third-party cookies are the technology that allows advertisers to track you across sites.
If you hop from an NPR article about a new book by historian Rhae Lynn Barnes to Ulta’s website to look for a new concealer and then to your own LinkedIn profile, advertisers start to build a nice little profile about who you are. (It’s me. I did those things.)
Firefox also automatically blocks these cookies.
You can achieve similar results on Chrome, but you have to go in and make this change in the settings. Google had promised to block the technology but backtracked in 2024.
You can get granular if you prefer
There are lots of boxes to check or uncheck
If you’re sick of websites asking to see your location, you can put a stop to these requests in Brave. I was also able to hide features I didn’t want, like the crypto wallet and AI assistant.
You can also set more aggressive restrictions, like disallowing Facebook post embeds, not allowing sites to show photos, and disabling sound.
Some of these settings certainly affect how websites operate, so you might find yourself resetting them depending on your preferences. It’s all a balance of convenience and security.
One aspect that took some getting used to was signing back in to sites when I restarted my computer.
Balance, I remind myself, opening up my authenticator app for the third time to verify my identity.
My password manager is available as an extension
That would’ve been a deal breaker
Since Firefox and Chrome both have robust extension options, I knew I needed my favorites to come with me if I was switching to Brave.
My password manager was top of the list, and Brave has extensions for LastPass, 1Password, Bitwarden, NordPass, and more.
It actually directs you to the Chrome Web Store for any extensions you want to add.
Websites look cleaner but still work
It’s complicated, though
Some websites I visit frequently are overrun by ads. I get it. It’s how many sites stay afloat.
I do feel guilty enjoying Brave’s stripped-down look, free of banners and ad takeovers. It’s one reason I’m not totally ditching Firefox. I want my visits to sites that I love to matter.
Firefox warns that Brave’s settings might break websites. I have yet to find a site that didn’t load, though.
I was still able to get chat windows to pop up. NPR’s request window for donations also appeared.
Brave is nice and speedy
It handles my shameful amount of tabs
I’m guilty of keeping too many tabs open. I don’t want to lose stuff in the abyss of my saved-for-later trove. And I might go back and finish that article about why wired headphones are trendy now. I might!
I’m used to Firefox scolding me about this very thing. Close your tabs. This site is slowing down your computer.
But Brave seems to carry the same burden without making my computer crawl.
Brave’s search engine can’t quite compete, though
Luckily, you can use other options
I’ve been using DuckDuckGo for most of my searches, but there are times when it simply fails. I was afraid the Brave browser would be the same.
Luckily, it’s better. When searching for information on when Seattle’s cherry blossoms will bloom, the hottest place on Earth, and the poem “Eloisa to Abelard,” I got similar results compared to Google.
But the search engine struggled in other areas.
For example, I looked up the weather for Jackson, Mississippi. The weather icons showed me sunny skies in Jackson, California. That could be pretty disastrous when there’s severe weather. (Although, you shouldn’t rely on weather icons no matter what.)
Its map results are also subpar. I looked for coffee shops in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, and it showed far fewer options than Google Maps.
On the home tab, you have the option of seven search engines. You can check multiple, and then use the dropdown menu or shortcuts to choose how you want to search. Brave, Google, DuckDuckGo, and Bing are all options.
I set Brave as the default, then switch between Google and DuckDuckGo depending on what I’m searching for.
Brave makes it easy to get a little more browsing protection
You may want to keep Firefox or Chrome around, though
Right now, Brave is my default browser on both my laptop and phone.
It’s speedy and straightforward, but it doesn’t quite have everything I want. I still have to use Google for searchers pretty frequently, so its search engine isn’t a full replacement.
And while having no ads is nice, I still like to support my favorite sites that rely on ad revenue. That means visiting them with no ad blockers in place.
Overall, though, I like the idea of fewer trackers and a little more privacy.
