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.

    • chris@lemmy.mlEnglish
      81·
      9 months ago

      I’ve posted a similar question to asklemmy but more over the focus on preference than privacy. In short the search engine Kagi is really good, Brave search was what I had used for a while. I think search engine choice is a case by case kinda thing, each person uses what they like. There are some other engines I forgot from my post which are more privacy centered.

        • chris@lemmy.mlEnglish
          72·
          9 months ago

          Yes it is 10 dollars a month, but you can create an account and try it for free to see if it is for you. It also does not use your data nor push advertisements which explains the cost.

          • whale@lemm.ee
            21·
            9 months ago

            Right now, the only thing preventing them from collecting data is their word. And they don’t exactly have a good reputation for keeping their promises… or putting their money in good places.

            The last things I’ve seen with Brave choosing where their money goes has included

            1. Sponsoring a cryptocurrency gaming event that garnered almost no attention whatsoever
            2. Their wallet partner Gemini getting sued by New York for $1.1 billion of fraud

            The clearly have plenty of money, their software is being developed off the backs of giants (they defer to Google and Jitsi for the bulk of their work) and I don’t think throwing more money at them would be wise

          • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.eeEnglish
            35·
            9 months ago

            ddg does that for free

            $10/mo is also crazy overpriced for a search engine, they’re really not resource intensive at all

            • SnipingNinja@slrpnk.net
              52·
              9 months ago

              ddg relies on Bing so it isn’t really comparable, idk about kagi’s costs but they claim 1.2 cent per search and an average of 700 searches per month (as what they are serving and hence pricing for)

    • Kras Mazov@lemmygrad.ml
      1·
      9 months ago

      I use Brave Search on Firefox, but I mostly use the shortcuts it provides like !yt and !g. A few months back I mostly used it over google, but the search results more times than not have been worse in comparison for me.

      • whale@lemm.ee
        11·
        9 months ago

        Those shortcuts were actually pioneered by DuckDuckGo many, many years ago 😉. They’re called “bangs,” if you’re curious