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Brave Browser is getting a new feature called 'custom scriptlets' that lets advanced users inject their own JavaScript into websites, allowing deep customization and control over their browsing experience. The new feature is coming in Brave Browser version 1.75 for the desktop and is very similar to the popular TamperMonkey and GreaseMonkey browser extensions, which allow users to create "user scripts" that modify the functionality of specific websites. "Starting with desktop version 1.75, advanced Brave users will be able to write and inject their own scriptlets into a page, allowing for better control over their browsing experience," explained Brave in the announcement. Brave says that the feature was initially created to debug the browser's adblock feature but felt it was too valuable not to share with users. Brave's custom scriptlets feature can be used to modify webpages for a wide variety of privacy, security, and usability purposes. For privacy-related changes, users write scripts that block JavaScript-based trackers, randomize fingerprinting APIs, and substitute Google Analytics scripts with a dummy version. In terms of customization and accessibility, the scriptlets could be used for hiding sidebars, pop-ups, floating ads, or annoying widgets, force dark mode even on sites that don't support it, expand content areas, force infinite scrolling, adjust text colors and font size, and auto-expand hidden content. For example, the script below will remove sidebars from a particular website. Brave Browser custom scriptlet Source: Brave For performance and usability, the scriptlets can block video autoplay, lazy-load images, auto-fill forms with predefined data, enable custom keyboard shortcuts, bypass right-click restrictions, and automatically click confirmation dialogs. The possible actions achievable by injected JavaScript snippets are virtually endless. However, caution is advised, as running untrusted custom scriptlets may cause issues or even introduce some risk. How to use Brave scriptlets Brave says the scriptlets are powerful tools in the hands of knowledgeable users. At the same time, there's a risk that custom JavaScript can cause website problems. For this reason, it has placed the new feature behind a Developer mode flag in Shields > Content filtering. You can access the new feature by going to "brave://settings/shields/filters," enabling "Developer mode," and then clicking on the "Add new scriptlet" button. Enabling the new feature Source: BleepingComputer A box will appear warning the user they should not paste code they don't understand as this could result in privacy risks. Adding a new scriptlet Source: BleepingComputer Brave's custom scriptlet feature follows filter rule syntax similar to ad-blocking rules in uBlock Origin or AdGuard. For more information on that, check here. Those interested in experimenting with Brave's new feature should only use their own code or those of people they trust, strictly avoiding anything that hasn't been thoroughly scrutinized. It is also possible to subscribe to existing adblock filter lists, so that their rules are automatically used in Brave. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of January): 487 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The Brave web browser is perhaps best known for its ad blocking capabilities and allowing users to earn BAT crypto. In a new update for Android, the browser wants to take things further by allowing users to block any page elements, not just ads. This update to the Android browser brings it up to par with the desktop version which already has a Block Elements feature. Block Elements is quite buried away in the Android implementation. To find it, you need to tap on the Shields menu, go to “Advanced controls”, select “Block element”, tap the unwanted element, and then confirm with the “Block Elements” button. On the desktop, it’s arguably easier to find this feature as you just have to right click. If you ever want to clear your list of blocked elements, it’s possible to do that by pressing “Clear all blocked elements” in the Shields menu. This option only clears the blocked elements list for the page being viewed currently but it’s a quick way to reset everything to default. You can also see your per-site rules by heading to brave://settings/shields/filters. While blocking elements may provide you with some relief from annoying features of web pages, it can also introduce issues with the page. If you do experience any issue, it is best to “Clear all blocked elements” for the problematic page. The block elements feature is available with Brave for Android 1.78, you can update to this version using the Google Play Store. As an online publication, Neowin too relies on ads for operating costs and, if you use an ad blocker, we'd appreciate being whitelisted. In addition, we have an ad-free subscription for $28 a year, which is another way to show support! Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of April): 1,811 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

For some time now, Google has been waging a two-front war as it tries to render adblockers and content blockers useless, at least on YouTube, with supposed server-side-injected ads that could potentially become very difficult, if not impossible, to block. And also, the tech giant wants to make it impossible to enable unsupported adblockers, among other extensions and add-ons, on Chrome which include the likes of the highly popular uBlock Origin. These unsupported extensions are based on Manifest V2 (MV2) API which has been succeeded by Manifest V3. The latter promises better privacy, security and performance. In case you missed it, earlier this month, we reported on a new change Google is working on in its Chrome extension manager. The company is testing the option to disable the toggle to enable unsupported browser extensions like uBlock Origin such that users will no longer be able to use them and the only option will be to look for supported MV3 alternatives. The toggle would be greyed out preventing users from using unsupported MV2 add-ons. Besides, Google had already confirmed that enabling the extension via the said toggle could only work for so long as it will eventually be "permanently disabled" since such extensions, the company feels, are not the "best" for users. As such, the process has started and Google has begun disabling uBlock Origin and other such MV2 extensions. If you want to keep using uBlock Origin till June next year, you can also try this official Windows Registry trick. Rival Brave saw the opportunity and chimed in on such a post where an X user was complaining about the development. It has reminded users that, unlike Chrome, it will continue to work with uBlock Origin and also hinted about its own built-in adblocker and tracker-blocker. If you are considering something that is non-Chromium, Mozilla's Firefox is the only notable option as it is based on Gecko and it does indeed continue to work with uBlock Origin. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts

Brave, a relatively popular privacy-focused browser based on Chromium, has launched a native version for Windows on ARM. It is now available in the stable channel, giving users a non-mainstream alternative to Chrome and Edge with all the necessary optimizations. Windows computers with ARM chips can run any modern browser, even if it does not support ARM natively. However, emulation comes with some notable downsides, such as worse performance, inferior compatibility, and higher energy consumption. Developers can get rid of all that nastiness by optimizing their projects for ARM. That is just what Brave developers did. With the latest release for Windows on ARM, the Brave browser joined Mozilla and Microsoft in the list of browsers offering native versions for ARM. Chrome will follow suit soon. Google recently released the first ARM version of Chrome Canary, finally making ARM-friendly the most popular browser in the world. You can download Brave from its official website. The browser is also available in the Microsoft Store and on GitHub. For those tired of mainstream browsers and their questionable practices, Brave offers the same level of compatibility paired with improved privacy controls and advanced built-in features, such as ad-blocker, VPN, private search, and more. There are even additional services and apps that let you make free video calls, create customizable news feeds, and more. With Qualcomm planning to launch its new Snapdragon X Elite platform for Windows PCs, it is great to see more developers joining the ranks of apps optimized for ARM64. Windows on ARM is not a new thing (it was announced almost eight years ago), but it seems like it is just about to get some notable traction. Source

Brave Software has announced plans to deprecate the 'Strict' fingerprinting protection mode in its privacy-focused Brave Browser because it causes many sites to function incorrectly. Fingerprinting protection in Brave Browser is a feature designed to enhance user privacy by preventing websites from tracking users through a technique called fingerprinting. This tracking method does not rely on the use of cookies but instead involves collecting various device and browser data that can be combined to derive a unique and persistent identifying profile. Brave offers two protection modes, namely 'Standard' and 'Strict,' that implement different levels of blocking against known fingerprinting methods. Brave v1.61 Settings As the announcement explains, the Brave team has realized over time that Strict mode is causing more trouble than it is worth for both the project and its users. Strict mode's aggressive blocking of fingerprintable APIs often results in websites not working correctly, or at all, leading to a severely degraded browsing experience. Another issue is that Strict mode is used by roughly 0.5% of Brave's users, with the rest using the default setting, which is the Standard mode. This low percentage actually makes these users more vulnerable to fingerprinting despite them using the more aggressive blocker, because they constitute a discernible subset of users standing out from the rest. Ultimately, the Brave team believes that dedicating resources to maintain Strict mode for a relatively small user base is not the most efficient use of the project's limited resources. Brave's 'Standard' fingerprinting protection will continue to exist, enhanced, and optimized for solid protection against tracking, so most users shouldn't experience a notable impact. "Brave's Standard fingerprinting protection is already very extensive and the strongest of any major browser," reads the announcement. "Brave's innovative farbling of a number of major fingerprintable Web APIs makes it difficult for fingerprinters to get a reliable unique ID on your browser." "Going forward, we will continue to strengthen and expand Brave's Standard fingerprinting protections so that all our users have ever-improving protection against fingerprinters, while maintaining the highest possible level of compatibility with websites." The removal of Strict fingerprinting protection has already taken place on the testing 'Nightly' release and will be rolled out to the stable branch with version 1.64 for the desktop and Android. The current latest is version 1.61, so the change is expected to land in a couple of months. Based on the 0.5% stat shared by the Brave team in the announcement and a reported 65.5 million active monthly users, this change is expected to directly impact over 330,000 users. Source

Neowin recently covered the fact that Brave 1.63 brings support for Native SegWit Bitcoin accounts in Brave wallet. Another new feature in this update is the ability to enable Leo AI on the Android version of Brave. Leo is a pretty handy AI you can use to ask questions, summarize pages, translate pages, and create content right from the address bar and within the web page while respecting user privacy. The company said that Brave Leo for Android is going to be made available for all users on Brave 1.63 over the next few days. If you don’t see Leo yet, that’ll be because it’s being rolled out in phases over the next few days. To see if you have it, just open the address bar and look for the “Ask Leo” option once you’ve started typing. To have Leo interact with web pages, just press the three-dot menu and then tap Leo to begin. You can learn more about Brave Leo from its product page. Brave Leo lets you pick from three LLMs: Mixtral 8x7B, Claude Instant, and Llama 2 13B. For users on the free core tier, there will be rate limits that vary based on the model you choose (Llama has the highest rate limit). If you decide you need higher rate limits, there’s an option to subscribe to Leo Premium for $14.99 per month; this can be used on five devices. One of the biggest issues with AI is privacy; many of them, like ChatGPT, store your inputs, unless otherwise instructed, for them to be trained on. Brave, as a privacy browser, is taking a different approach with Leo: Brave Leo is now available on all platforms except iOS. Users of Brave on iPhone needn’t worry, however, because the team is hard at work and says that Brave Leo for iOS will be ready in the coming weeks. Source: Brave Source

Brave Software released a new version of its Brave Browser to the public. Brave Browser 1.63 includes several new features and improvements of existing features. Highlights include that vertical tabs may now be placed on the right side of the interface, new Brave Leo AI capabilities, and the option to sync tab groups The browser update is pushed to devices automatically, thanks to the integrated updating functionality. Brave users who do not want to wait for the update to reach their device may speed up the process. Select Menu > Help > About Brave to run a manual check for updates. Brave should detect the new version at this point. The update is then downloaded and installed automatically. A restart is required to complete the installation. Brave 1.63 introduces several interesting features and improvements. Vertical tabs users get the option to show the tabs on the right side of the browser, giving them more choice. Brave Leo users may now use the AI with PDF and Google Docs content, something that they could not do before. Brave updates include Web3 improvements as well. These are found in the official release notes. Now You: do you use any of the listed features? Source

Brave Software released a new stable version of the company's web browser this week. Besides more AI and several improvements, it is also introducing a change regarding the installation of VPN services on Windows machines. Back in October, we reported that Brave was installing VPN services for all users on Windows. Most Brave browser users do not use Brave Software's VPN service, but they still got the VPN service installed on their machines without consent or any intention of using the VPN. Brave Software responded to the allegations. It confirmed that the VPN services were installed on user devices on Windows. These were set to manual, which meant that they would not start unless started by the user. Furthermore, the VPN services would not submit any data to Brave Software. The company promised to change the behavior in the future. Fast forward six months and the release of Brave 1.64. The latest release of the browser does not install the VPN service anymore on Windows. Brave notes in the changelog: "Fixed Brave VPN to not install VPN services until VPN is purchased or enabled." Brave Software highlights two security and privacy improvements. The first improves Tor functionality in Brave by reaching feature parity with Tor browser regarding stream isolation for third-party subresources. The second improves the storage partitioning feature of Chromium by "making it compatible with Brave's ephemeral storage implementation". Now You: have you tried Brave 1.64 already? What is your impression of the new release? Source

Brave Software launched its Leo AI officially this week. The feature is still rolling out to all users of the web browser at the time of writing. Access is offered via the sidebar and also the address bar according to Brave, but some users report that the Leo icon is only available in the sidebar. Leo is free to use. The AI is based on Meta's Llame2 13b model, designed for general chat tasks by default. One interesting aspect of Leo is that users may switch to different language models. These include the advanced Llama2 70b and Anthropic's Claude Instant models, but this comes at a price. The option to switch to a different language model is provided for all users, but the functionality is locked. When you select a different model, Leo will advertise a subscription-based version to use these. For $15 per month, users get access to the additional models and higher rate limits. It may require trial and error to find out which of the language models works best for specific use cases. It is up to each user of Brave, and other browsers with AI baked in, to decide whether the AI is useful or not. Now You: do you use AI tools? Source

Brave, the company behind the Brave web browser, has announced that its Leo AI assistant is now available for free for all Brave desktop users with the new version 1.60. In an email press release, Brave states: The company claims that Leo is also private and secure, stating that it won't record any chats you make with it or use them to train large language models. No login or account is needed to access the AI chatbot. By default, Leo uses the Llama 2 LLM. However, Brave has announced that it has launched a subscription service for the chatbot, Leo Premium, that will give it access to other LLMs. Brave says: Leo Premium will have other features including higher chat rate limits, and priority use during peak usage. The service will cost $15 a month and is available to purchase at Brave's site. Brave is launching Leo in a period of some turbulence at the company. In October it announced it had laid off about 9 percent of its employees "as part of our cost management in this challenging economic environment." Later in that same month, it was discovered that the Windows version of Brave was also installing its VPN services without telling users. Brave said it will update the browser so it no longer installs the VPN apps. Source

Brave Software has released a new version of Brave Browser Stable. Brave 1.58 is the latest stable version of the browser and it is available for all supported desktop operating systems already. Since Brave Browser is based on Chromium, it is also changing the minimum macOS version to 10.15, just like Chromium and Google Chrome did. Users of the web browser may select Menu > Help > About Brave to display the current version installed on the device. Opening the page runs a check for updates, and the latest version should be downloaded and installed at this point as well. Once installed, Brave Browser's "About" page should list the version 1.58.124. Brave 1.58 The official release notes on the Brave website reveal that the underlying Chromium part has been upgraded to version 117.0.5938.62, which includes the fix for the critical security issue found in WebP image handling among other things. Google addressed the issue earlier this week in Chrome and also in the Chrome 117 release. Brave Software lists improvements to vertical tab animations and sidebar slide animations as other improvements. The browser's Web3 functionality has been updated as well, as usual. Web3 powers the browser's wallet, integration of crypto-assets and management options. Brave Software continues to expand the browser's Web3 capabilities, but also usability features. Now You: do you use Brave Browser? Source

Microsoft Edge has Bing AI chat, Google Chrome has Bard, and Opera has Aria. Brave Browser has joined the list with its own AI chat feature, meet Leo. This isn't the first time Brave has toyed with artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, an AI summarizer was introduced in Brave Search. It allowed users to interact with the search engine by typing queries, and provides a snippet at the top of the results with the information that you were looking for. It doesn't work for all queries, so the experience can be a hit or miss. Brave Browser's AI assistant - Leo Brave Leo is quite different. The AI assistant is a native app embedded in Brave Browser. It is currently available for users in the Nightly channel on desktop. The feature works similar to other AI chatbots, like Open AI's ChatGPT does. So you can ask it questions, generate text, write code, etc. Based on some quick testing, I'd say it still needs a lot of work, which is why it is part of the Nightly experience, it will be improved based on feedback from users. It generates text very quickly, which is quite impressive. Brave Leo can summarize articles on the web page that you are on, which can be useful if you are in a hurry, and want to know what the web page is about without scrolling the entire thing. The first option, is used to toggle Leo's icon from the sidebar. The next setting is called "Show suggested prompts in the conversation", this option is disabled by default. When you enable this option, Leo will display some contextual follow-up suggestions in the chat. The Settings page has an option to clear Leo's data manually. If you head on to brave://flags/ you will find the feature's flag called Brave AI Chat. This is enabled by default. You can remove the icon from the sidebar by right-clicking on the sidebar or from the Settings page. Alternatively, you may choose to disable the flag if you don't want to use the feature. Limitations in Brave Leo AI Brave says that Leo does not have access to live info, so it cannot provide up-to-date news on current events like Microsoft Bing chat does. Brave plans to add support for real-time information in Leo in the future, and the results will be powered by Brave Search. Source

Brave Software has released Brave Browser 1.57. The new version of the web browser is a smaller update, but it includes several new features and also security fixes. Brave installations should receive the update in the coming days. Users who don't want to wait for this to happen automatically may select Menu > About Brave to run a manual check for updates. The browser should download and install version 1.57 automatically when the page is opened in the browser. The same page lists the installed version, which should be v1.57.47 after the update. The official changelog for the desktop is available here. The main new feature introduced in Brave 1.57 is the Forget by Default browsing mode. Previously called Forgetful Browsing, Forget by Default adds a new option to Brave to have site data deleted automatically when a website is closed. A click on the Shield icon in the address bar displays the new option as "Forget me when I close this site". The option is disabled by default and may be enabled on a per-site basis or globally in Brave. It instructs the browser to clear first-party storage of the site, including cookies and DOM Storage, when the last tab of the website is closed. Brave users who have disabled Safe Browsing may enable the flag brave://flags/#brave-override-download-danger-level now to get rid of the download warnings and macOs users get a new preference to disable end off support warnings on macOS 10.13 and 10.14. Other changes include improved vertical tab scrolling and a delta updates fix on Windows. The browser is now based on Chromium 116.0.5845.96, which includes the latest security updates. See the Chrome 116 article for details on those. Work continues on Web3 features, including Brave Wallet, NFTs and related features. Now You: what is your take on the new Forget by Default option? Source

If you have been installing the Brave web browser since mid-2022, you have also unknowingly been installing the company's VPN services as well. The discovery of this rather blatant attempt at putting in more programs under the browser install without the consent of the user was first reported by Ghacks earlier this week. The under-the-radar move actually puts in two VPN services, Brave VPN Service and Brave VPN Wireguard Service. Both were found by Ghacks in the Windows Services manager feature. The two services don't send any data to Brave once they are installed. They will also only launch if a person decides on their own to purchase a Brave VPN service. Having said that, it's never a good idea for any software company to slip in any new programs that you have not wanted or needed. If you discover these two VPNs in your Windows Services manager section, you can either disable them or completely delete them. After Ghacks discovered these Brave VPNs had been installed, Brian Clifton, the company's vice president of engineering, made a post on GitHub. He stated that a future Brave browser update will "Remove the service registrations" so that these VPN services will not be installed when the browser is installed. Furthermore, people who get a Brave browser upgrade and "who have this service installed will have the service removed." From now on, the services will only be installed when users purchase the Brave VPN subscription. The Brave browser was first launched in 2016 by the company run by Mozilla's former CEO, Brendan Eich. Earlier in 2023, it also launched its own independent search service and API. It's also been testing its own generative AI assistant. Earlier this month, the company announced it was laying off 9 percent of its workforce, which affected several departments. Source

If you have the Brave Browser installed on your Windows devices, then you may also have Brave VPN services installed on the machine. Brave installs these services without user consent on Windows devices. Brave Firewall + VPN is an extra service that Brave users may subscribe to for a monthly fee. Launched in mid-2022, it is a cooperation between Brave Software, maker of Brave Browser, and Guardian, the company that operates the VPN and the firewall solution. The firewall and VPN solution is available for $9.99 per month. Brave Software is not the only browser maker that has integrated a VPN solution in its browser. Mozilla, maker of Firefox, entered into a cooperation with Mullvad and launched Mozilla VPN in 2020. Brave Browser's installation of VPN services on Windows A post on Privacy Guides suggests that Brave Browser installs its VPN Service without user consent and regardless of whether the VPN is used or has been used in the past. You can verify this easily by following these steps: Use Windows-R to open the Run box. Type services.msc to open the Services manager on Windows. Scroll down until you come to the Brave section there. Check for Brave VPN Service and Brave VPN Wireguard Service. If they exist, Brave has installed the services on your device. If you were never subscribed to Brave Firewall + VPN, the company may have done so without your consent. The two services have no description, the startup type Manual and Manual Trigger Start. There is no explanation why these services got installed on the system. Cautious users may set the two Services to disabled: Right-click on one of the services and select Properties. Switch the Startup type from Manual to Disabled. Repeat the process for the second VPN service. Deleting the Windows services is another option. The main issue here is that there is no guarantee that a browser update won't install the Services again. You'd need to monitor the services whenever Brave Browser updates to make sure of that. Some users who replied to the discussion on Privacy Guides said that they did not have these services installed. Closing Words Why are the VPN services installed in first place? Brave made no announcement in this regard. Maybe so that users can start using the VPN immediately on Windows and not after a restart. In any event, you now have the tools at hand to check for the services and either disable or delete them. Now You: do you use Brave Browser? Source

Brave Browser 1.59 is the new desktop version of the Chromium-based web browser. The release revamps the main menu of the browser, introduces a few new options and fixes security issues and crashes next to that. The new version is in distribution already and most installations of Brave Browser on the desktop should receive it automatically. You can check the version by selecting Menu > Help > About Brave. The browser runs a check for updates when the page is opened. It should download and install any new version that it finds during the check automatically. Brave 1.59 Brave 1.59 is a smaller release. The official release notes divide the changes into different groups as usual. The new browser version updates Chromium to 118.0.5993.70, which means that security issues are patched in the new version. Google launched Chrome 118 recently, which is based on that. The company addressed 20 security issues in the Chrome release. Brave engineers have fixed several crashes in the browser. One crash occurred when users loaded an internal page, brave://optimization-guide-internals, another when users added scriptlet injection filters with too many arguments. As far as other privacy and security changes are concerned, Brave 1.59 improves the browser's debouncing service. Bounce tracking protection was introduced in 2021 in Brave Browser. It is designed to protect users from so-called bounce tracking or redirect tracking methods. The main idea behind bounce tracking is load tracking domains when users navigate that redirect users to the original destination. Brave Browser will also block "onion" domain subresource requests in non-Tor contexts now. Brave supports Tor, which users may enable by selecting Menu > New Private Window with Tor, or through the keyboard shortcut Alt-Shift-N. Onion domains and subresources should only be loaded in Tor mode, and this fix prevents subresources from being loaded outside of the mode. The Linux version of Brave Browser comes with improved password storage backend detection logic in the new version. Brave 1.59 other changes The integrated Wayback Machine feature has a now "don't show again" checkbox in the new browser version. It replaces the button and helps minimize miss-clicks according to Brave. Brave suggests to load an archived copy of a webpage if it can't be reached, for instance if the server is down. Brave Browser 1.59 has a refreshed main menu, which features icons now. All Chromium-based browsers move to this new main menu design. Brave VPN users may now enable WireGuard in the settings by loading brave://settings/system. Closing Words Brave Browser 1.59 is a light update for the web browser. It is still important, as it addresses security issues and crashes. Brave Software has laid off 9% of its workforce recently. Now You: do you use Brave? Source

On Friday, Brave published its State of the BAT 2023 report to assess how its crypto token was doing so far. One of the interesting bits of information that it released pertains to the reach of Brave Ads which are displayed by the Brave web browser in exchange for BAT which is paid out to users every month. The company revealed that the average click-through rate (CTR) for a Brave Ads campaign was 8% which is four times higher than the industry average of 2%. Not only were its click-throughs higher, but the company said it was also observing higher engagement too. As a result of this, the company said it has had over 6,600 ad campaigns since launch and has worked with 900 advertisers including Ford, PayPal, Toyota, Mastercard, Intel, Chipotle, Crocs, BMW, Keurig, American Express, Budweiser, Walmart, Amazon, The Home Depot, Binance, Coinbase, eToro, Ledger, Near, and Solana. The primary purpose of BAT is for recipients of the token to automatically send a certain number of tokens to the websites they regularly visit or to make donations to the content creators they like – this can be websites, YouTube creators, Redditors, Twitter users and more. Brave said that the number of creators who had become verified to accept BAT had reached 1,742,574. Going forward, Brave plans to introduce ads to its Brave Search results so that Brave Rewards users can earn more from their browsing. To learn about the full scope of Brave’s plans for BAT, be sure to check out the report from last week. Brave says its browser ads have click-through rates four times above the industry average

Brave Software has released its VPN to desktops with the most recent 1.49 version of its browser. The company already offers its VPN on Android and iOS but the recent news makes it fully cross-platform. To reflect this, the company says that anyone who buys a desktop VPN subscription will be able to use the protections on up to five devices, regardless of platform. Brave said that its Firewall + VPN service is available for $9.99 per month and that the $99.99 per year option will be available on desktops soon. If you have five devices to connect to the VPN, that’s about $2 a month per device. By using the Firewall + VPN on your phone, trackers will be blocked across all the apps on your device, not just in the Brave browser. If you’re intrigued by the VPN offer from Brave you can update your browser on your desktop and press the new VPN icon near the address bar. This will show a pop-up that showcases the features included and an option to buy a subscription. The company is also giving prospective customers a free 7-day trial to see if they’d like to buy a subscription. On your phone, you can go to the Settings menu and toggle the Brave Firewall + VPN option. If you already have the subscription on mobile, you can connect your browser too by toggling on the option and then connecting your device on the account.brave.com website which you should automatically be taken to. Brave launches desktop VPN and cross-device subscriptions

Most Internet browsers support Reader Mode functionality, which is designed to improve the readability of articles. Firefox, Brave, Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi and many more browsers support reader mode functionality by default. Chrome, the most used desktop browser, supports it as well, but has it disabled by default. Reader Mode has different names depending on the browser that is used. Reader Mode is common, but you may also encounter the names Reader View or Immersive View. All have in common that they remove elements from webpages that are unrelated to the main article; this may include navigational elements, advertisement, sidebar content, or user comments. The majority of Reader Modes require manual activation, either through clicks on an icon in the browser's toolbar or through keyboard shortcuts. Brave Browser includes an option to toggle Reader Mode automatically for all articles that you encounter. The article listings on Ghacks, for instance, are not displayed in the reading mode, but when an article is opened, it is displayed automatically. Brave notes that it uses a technique that is modifying the page before it is downloaded, and that this saves bandwidth and loading time. The automated nature of the mode in Brave gives it that advantage over the feature in other browsers, as it is required to activate the mode manually in most browsers. Enable Reader Mode Reader Mode can be enabled for specific websites in Brave. A click on the Reader Mode icon in the address bar of the Browser displays the option to do so. You may use the same menu to turn off Reader Mode for a specific site, if the feature is enabled for all sites. Reader Mode Configuration Reader Mode automation settings are provided in the browser's preferences: Load brave://settings/appearance in the browser's address bar to open the Appearance Settings. Scroll down until you find the Speedreader preference on the page. Toggle it to enable or disable it. When you enable it, Brave will load all articles in Reader Mode automatically. You may then use the address bar icon to turn it off for specific sites. Reader Mode implementations may display unnecessary content when invoked in the browser, and none support options to modify the behavior on certain sites. They improve accessibility significantly in some cases though. Now You: do you use Reader Mode in your browser of choice? Configure Brave Browser to display all articles in Reader Mode

Brave Software, maker of the Brave web browser for desktop and mobile operating systems, is integrating firewall and VPN functionality into its web browser. Brave 1.39 for Android includes the new functionality, which launched for Brave on iPhone and iPad earlier this year. source: Brave Brave entered into a partnership agreement with Guardian to promote and integrate Guardian's firewall and VPN product into the browser. The update to Brave 1.39 for Android is required before the new VPN link becomes available in the browser's main menu. Activation of the item in the menu displays basic information about the offer and the price. Brave VPN is powered by Guardian, a company known for its firewall and VPN product. The product supports the blocking of trackers and advertisement, and secure connections using the WireGuard technology. Unlike several other browser integrated VPN solutions, Brave VPN works systemwide, which means that all applications benefit from it when it is enabled. Brave VPN is available as a commercial product only. Users of Brave may pay $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year to subscribe to Brave VPN; Guardian Firewall is not available for Android officially, but the pricing matches the pricing of the standalone iOS version. Compared to other VPN solutions, Brave VPN can't be described as a cheap option. Mozilla VPN, a VPN solution by Mozilla that is powered by Mullvad, is available for half the price. Popular VPN providers such as NordVPN or ExpressVPN are available for even less during sales, which seem to happen all-year-round. Some support the blocking of ads and trackers as well. Is Brave VPN bringing anything to the table other than what other VPN apps and services support as well? Brave Software highlights its unique authentication system. While it is necessary to buy a subscription for Brave VPN to use the service, Brave is using a pseudonymous digital receipt to provide access to the VPN service, and "randomized, rotated identifiers" when connecting to VPN servers. According to Brave, this system provides access to the VPN "in a manner that does not require Brave or Guardian to be aware of a user's identity". Guardian uses the same technology for its standalone application, as highlighted in the company's Privacy Policy. Brave plans to roll out Brave VPN to all Brave users on Android devices, version 8 and up, over the coming days. Brave 1.39 is expected to become available by the time as well. The company plans to introduce Brave VPN in all desktop versions of the web browser in the "next several months" as well, so that it is available for all supported operating systems and device types. Microsoft launched the free Secure Network browser VPN in its Edge browser for select customers recently. Browser makers have started to integrate VPNs into their browsers recently. Now You: would you rather subscribe to a standalone VPN, or a VPN integrated into a browser? Brave partners with Guardian to bring a paid VPN and Firewall to its browser

Brave 1.30 introduces a new option for devices running Windows 10 or Windows 11, which allows the browser to become the default browser for Microsoft Edge's internal protocol. Searches and internal pages that Microsoft designed using the protocol, microsoft-edge://, will open in Brave if configured correctly. Windows 10 and Windows 11 users who make a third-party web browser the default system browser, meaning any browser that is not Microsoft Edge, may notice that some requests are still loaded in Edge. Web search results of the Start menu are a prime example; others include help file and support links, or when uninstalled programs spawn a web page. Third-party programs like Edge Deflector or BrokenURL were developed to bypass the limitation. These programs register as the default protocol handler for the Microsoft Edge protocol and redirect requests to another browser. Browsers have not used the method up until now to hijack the Edge protocol requests so that they are opened in the browser and not in Edge. Brave 1.30 changes that. The developers analyzed the Microsoft-Edge protocol and how it is set, and implemented an option in the new version of Brave that gives users the option to make Brave the true default browser on the Windows device. The feature is not automated, but setup is quick. All you have to do after upgrading to Brave 1.30 -- check brave://settings/help to see the version -- is to launch a request that uses the protocol. A simple option is to click on a web search result in the Start menu. A "choose your browser" prompt is displayed and Brave is one of the options. Check "always use this app" and pick Brave browser from the short list of options. Configuration in Settings Alternatively, you may set Brave in the Settings as well. Use Windows-I to open the Settings application, or go to Start > Settings. On Windows 10: Navigate to Apps > Default Apps > Choose default apps by protocol. Locate "Microsoft-Edge" on the page that opens in the Name column. Left-click on Microsoft Edge in the second column and pick Brave from the "choose an app" list to make it the default for the protocol. On Windows 11: Navigate to Apps > Default Apps > Choose defaults by link type. Locate "Microsoft-Edge" on the page that opens in the Name column. Left-click on Microsoft Edge in the second column and pick Brave from the "choose an app" list to make it the default for the protocol. The change takes effect immediately. Run another web search from Start, and you will notice that results open in Brave and no longer in Microsoft Edge. Note that Bing is still used when searches are made and that it includes several parameters. Brave has a thread open on GitHub, and it may address this in a later build of the browser as well. Brave 1.30 introduces a handful of other features. Users of the browser may enable the new "Index other search engines" option to automatically add search engines that support the OpenSearch spec to Brave. Linux and Mac admins may disable Tor via a new policy, and Brave's content blocker allows first-party requests in the standard (default) setting now. You can check out all Closing Words It is probably only a matter of time before other third-party browsers implement similar functionality. There is no good reason, other than pushing Microsoft Edge, to limit a browser protocol on Windows. Brave 1.30 supports Microsoft Edge's protocol on Windows to become the true default browser on Windows 10 and 11

Brave Browser's new privacy protections: time-based permissions and more Brave added several privacy protection improvements to the company's Brave Browser recently. One of them improves the permissions dialog that the browser displays when sites request access to certain information such as a user's location, camera or microphone. Most Chromium-based browsers displays allow or block options in the dialog. Mozilla's Firefox web browser sets temporary permissions by default unless users check a box in the dialog. Apple's Safari browser offers a similar feature. Brave, starting in version 1.25, displays a new option that enables users to select a period in which the permission is valid. The options are "until I close the site", "for 24 hours", "for 1 week", and "forever". Forever works just like the allow button, but all three remaining options limit the granted permission to the specified time. The permission is revoked automatically by the browser once. Brave notes that the all or nothing permissions approach leads to the oversharing of data as users have to revoke permissions actively to block future access to the information by the site in question. Bounce Tracking Protections improvements Recent versions of Brave Browser include improved bounce tracking protections. Sites may use bounce tracking to track users; this is done by adding parameters to the URL which is then passed to the destination. Facebook uses the system to track users across sites on the Internet. Brave protected users from bounce trackers up until now by stripping tracking parameters from URLs. Users of the browser who have enabled aggressive tracking in the browser's settings will receive prompts now when a "URL is suspected as a bounce tracker". The loading of the destination is blocked by default, but users may continue to the site or end the navigation at that point. Brave plans to introduce the protections to all users, regardless of blocking setting status. Other privacy improvements in Brave Brave introduced ephemeral third-party storage some time ago in the browser which was designed to protect against tracking but without breaking sites, particularly sites that expected third-party storage to persist. The feature caused issues on certain sites that used specific integrations, e.g. Single-Sign On. Brave cleared third-party storage of a site the moment the site was no longer open, but some workflows did not work as expected because of that. To make sure that this does not happen anymore, Brave added a 30 second pause to the process, after which the data is removed. The fourth and final improvement integrates new fingerprinting protections in the web browser. Dark Mode fingerprinting protections WebGL fingerprinting protection improvements. You can check out the announcement on the Brave site. Brave Browser's new privacy protections: time-based permissions and more

The makers of the Chromium-based Brave web browser have released Brave 1.37 to the public. The new stable version of Brave adds a new optional sidebar to the browser among other new features. Brave 1.37 is already available. Existing users may select Menu > Help > About Brave to run a manual check for updates. Brave should pick up the new version and install it immediately. New users may point their browser to the official website to download the browser for their operating system. Brave 1.37: new features One of the main new features of Brave is support for a sidebar. It is disabled by default but you may enable it by selecting Menu > Show Sidebar. Options to show it all the time or only on mouse hover are available. The sidebar looks very similar to the Vivaldi web browser sidebar. It is attached to the left side of the browser by default and displays just a few icons at this time. Vivaldi's sidebar started out similarly, but the team has added more features and customization options to it since. As far as the sidebar in Brave is concerned, it displays links to Brave Wallet and Brave Talk, and you may add any active site to the bar by clicking on the plus icon. The bookmarks bar icon displays all bookmarks in an expanded sidebar when it is selected. The sidebar lacks the flexibility and customization options when compared to Vivaldi's toolbar. There is no option to display it on the right, or to add other functions and features to it. It is possible that new features and options will be introduced in future versions of the browser. Custom new tab backgrounds Support for custom new tab page backgrounds launched in the new version of Brave a swell. Users may upload a custom image from their systems for use as the desktop background. To do so, open a new tab page in the browser and select the customize link on it. There you find an option to upload an image from your device; this image is then used as the new tab wallpaper by the browser. There is no option to upload multiple images to cycle through them. Unlinkable bouncing Unlinkable bouncing is a new privacy protection of the Brave browser. I reviewed the functionality previously, and you may want to read the full guide on unlinkable bouncing as it offers additional details. The feature complements Brave's existing bounce tracking protections through the use of temporary storage. Brave uses temporary storage for bounce tracking sites that is erased once it is no longer open in the browser. Without that data, site can't identify users anymore on their next bounce tracking visit. Other changes The official release notes highlight other improvements, most of them fixes or changes to Brave's Wallet and crypto-currency implementations. Brave users who have experienced issues in the previous version may want to check out the full changelog to find out if the issues are resolved. One new feature adds support for cosmetic filters to the default ad-blocking functionality. Load brave://adblock in the address bar and check the cosmetic filters that you want Brave to use. The list includes popular choices such as Fanboy's annoyances and social lists, various country-specific lists, or EasyList's cookie filter list. Now You: have you tried the new Brave version? Brave 1.37: new sidebar, custom new tab backgrounds and privacy improvements

Brave Browser for Android was updated to version 1.36.112 recently. The latest build of the app has removed the Tab Stack view, and instead forces the Grid layout as the only way to switch between tabs. The above screenshot shows stacked tabs (cascade view) in Brave Browser in an older version of the app. And this is what the new Grid layout looks like in the browser's current version. Firefox users may remember that the grid view was added to the mobile version of the browser in version 84, that was released in December 2020. As a Firefox user, I never really liked the grid layout or the idle tabs for that matter. It's an awful way to browse and manage tabs, which is why I use the List view. Though it does not look as good as stacked tabs, but it's better than the grid view. Why do browser developers keep pushing Grid view as if it is the best option for tabs? Mobile devices have small screens, and hence can only display a limited number of cards at a time, which means the user has to scroll through a longer list of tabs than in stacked view. This problem began about a year ago, when Google Chrome v88 introduced Grid View for tabs. Users had the option to disable it by changing a preference, that didn't last long, as Google removed the option to disable tab groups when Chrome 91 was rolled out. Brave browser on the other hand, used to support it until the latest update. If you are still on an older version of the app, head to brave://flags and search for Tab Grid Layout, and Tab Groups. Tap on the drop-down menu and change the values for each flag from default to disabled. This used to turn off the grid view, and bring back the good old tab stack mode. But not anymore, even though the flags exist, modifying them does nothing. The Chromium open source project is the reason for this change. I'm not defending Brave, I'm just pointing out where the change began. Since Brave Browser relies on the same source code, it too removed said feature from the latest version. The app's appearance page no longer has the option to disable Tab Groups either, which probably explains why editing the flag doesn't work, the old view mode doesn't exist. Brave users are furious about the change, and have raised their pitchforks over at the app's GitHub repository, the official community forums, and also voiced their concerns about the Grid Layout on reddit. In a way, I'm glad Firefox offers List View as a choice for the user. Vivaldi users can opt to use a tab bar, but it is not exactly as easy to use as a tab stack, and the app's tab switcher uses the same grid view as Chromium-based browsers. If you really want to disable Tab Groups in Brave browser, there is a workaround. I don't really recommend it since it involves downgrading the browser to a previous version, as it could put your data at risk due to security issues that were patched in later builds. If you don't care about that, download a beta build APK of Brave Browser from a few weeks ago. e.g. Beta 1.36.104. Install the app, open the app's settings page, and navigate to the Appearance section. Toggle the option labeled "Tab Groups", to disable it. You will need to restart the app to get the tab stacking feature back. Do you like tab stacks or grid view in mobile browsers? Brave Browser for Android removes support Tab Stack view, forcing users to use the Grid layout

Even if you block 3rd-party cookies, bounce tracking can set them anyway. Until now. Some websites just can't take "no" for an answer. Instead of respecting visitors' choice to block third-party cookies—the identifiers that track browsing activity as a user moves from site to site—they find sneaky ways to bypass those settings. Now, makers of the Brave browser are taking action. Earlier this week, Brave Nightly—the testing and development version of the browser—rolled out a feature that's designed to prevent what's known as bounce tracking. The new feature, known as unlinkable bouncing, will roll out for general release in Brave version 1.37 slated for March 29. Overriding privacy Bounce tracking is one of the key ways websites circumvent third-party cookie blocking. When a browser prevents a website such as site.example from loading a third-party tracking cookie from a domain such as tracker.example, site.example pulls a fast one. When site.example detects that the tracker.example cookie can't be set, it instead redirects the browser to the tracker.example site, sets a cookie from that domain, and then redirects back to the original page or a new destination. With that, the tracker.example cookie gets passed through a URL parameter and then gets stashed as a first-party cookie on the landing page. Once tracker.example places itself between enough of the sites a visitor browses, the tracker eventually builds a detailed profile of that activity, including the user's interests and demographics. The image below shows how third-party cooking blocking is supposed to work. When the user moves from site-one.example to cats.example and later from site-two.example to cars.example, there's no way to track those movements as coming from the same person. Brave Bounce tracking circumvents this arrangement by inserting a third-party tracking site such as tracker.example in between the originating site and the cats.example or cars.example sites the user later browses to. Tracker.example then records that it was the user who visited both cats.example and cars.example. Brave While browsers that support third-party cookie blocking have existing mechanisms designed to thwart bounce tracking, this sneaky form of surveillance remains hard to defend against, since the browser doesn't know beforehand that it will be directed to tracker.example. That's where unlinkable bouncing comes in. Ephemeral storage to the rescue In a post, the Brave privacy team on Wednesday outlined the process that unlinkable bouncing uses. In a nutshell, unlinkable bouncing checks the site a user is about to visit against a list of URLs known to perform bounce tracking. When a destination site appears on the list and Brave has no cookies, localStorage, or other data related to it, the browser automatically creates a new, one-time browser storage area for the site. Once a user leaves the tracking site, Brave deletes the temporary storage. Because the data is no longer stored, the tracking site will be unable to re-identify the user the next time they are bounced through it. Brave has several other ways to prevent site tracking. They include query-parameter stripping, debouncing, and (when blocking is set to aggressive mode) a warning to give concerned users a chance to back out. The Brave privacy team explained the full flow as follows: When navigating to a new URL, Brave checks to see if that URL is a known bounce-tracking (or otherwise harmful) site, by consulting filter lists (both crowdsourced and Brave-generated). If that URL appears in a filter list, the browser checks the Trackers & ads blocked shields setting for the destination site. If that setting is Aggressive, the user is presented with a warning for whether they want to continue with the navigation, as described in a prior blog post. If the user has Trackers & ads blocked in the default setting (or decides to continue with the navigation in the Aggressive setting), the browser then checks the first-party DOM storage values (cookies, localStorage, etc.) for the destination site. If the user has any existing stored values, the navigation continues using the existing stored values (in other words, Unlinkable Bouncing is not applied). If no DOM storage values exist for the destination site, the browser creates a new, temporary browser storage area for the destination site. Soon after you leave the suspected bounce-tracking site (meaning no tabs are open for that site) the temporary storage is deleted, preventing the site from re-identifying you the next time you're bounced through the site. Team members said that unlinkable bouncing is the first of four planned applications to implement what they call "first-party ephemeral storage." The set of techniques allow a site to identify visitors for only as long as they have it open. As a result, first-party ephemeral storage prevents the first-party site from re-identifying a user unless the user wants to be re-identified. Using first-party ephemeral storage will be akin to clearing browser storage every time the user leaves the site, except it's easier and more targeted. "This brings about a total shift in the Web's default behavior," the privacy team members wrote. "To date, browsers have assumed users want every site to remember them unless the user takes some explicit step against that remembering. Instead, Brave is working toward forgetfulness (and thus privacy) by default." Brave takes on the creepy websites that override your privacy settings