The Brave Browser: why not just use an ad blocker?

Why not just use an ad blocker?

Brave is a free and open-source web browser developed spearheaded by Brendan Eich (father of Javascript & Mozilla). The browser blocks ads and website trackers.

Brave is far more than just an ad blocker though. It has ad blocking and far more extensive tracking protection enabled by default. The benefit to this is that it offers comprehensive all-in-one ad and tracking protection out of the box, for anyone. Meanwhile, conventional ad blockers such as AdBlock install with “Acceptable Ads” enabled by default, meaning you are still exposed to 3rd party tracking and ad replacement by Eyeo’s Acceptable Ads platform.

In addition, more and more users also have to install additional extensions alongside the ad blocker, to ensure site compatibility, etc; all of which makes maintaining standard ad blocking a bit of a hassle. Aside from ad blocking at face value, Brave have a general, privacy-by-design approach for the entire browsing experience, which is not something that users will get from only installing an extension.

Lastly, and very importantly, Brave is a standalone, separate browser (not just an add-on extension subject to Google’s policies), and can therefore operate faster and with more control over the content that is downloaded and run, compared to a mere extension running on top of an existing architecture. It’s not just blocking ads, it’s not even downloading the elements that request and run the ads in the first place.

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