Brave, the first crypto-friendly browser on privacy

Web browser of the crypto universe with its Basic Attention Token (BAT), Brave ranks ahead of other browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Yandex) in terms of Protection of personal data.

If the private life was the first factor of choice for a Web browser by internet users, Brave would probably rank among the most used today. According to a comparison by privacy expert from Trinity College Dublin, Douglas Leigth, Brave definitely stands out in this area.

Used ‘out of the box’ with its default settings, Brave is by far the most private of the browsers studied. We did not find any use of identifiers to track the IP address over time, nor any sharing of the details of the web pages visited with the backend servers, ”noted the author.

Brave, the only browser banning unique identifiers

As for Chromium, the most used software in the world today with a share of page views on the Web of around 60%, it allows Google to collect personal data, including behavioral data.

This is not surprising since the business model of the Californian firm is based on the use of this data to deliver targeted advertising. Certain elements of the pages visited in Chrome are thus shared with Google's servers.

The function can be deactivated in the configuration parameters. By default, however, it is active. And the data is associated with a unique identifier allowing the advertising giant to establish a profile of the Internet user.

Safari home page leaks data from Facebook

Firefox, which nevertheless makes the protection of privacy one of its marketing arguments, is not free from defects in this area either. The researcher notes that identifiers are transmitted as part of the telemetry, a function activated by default.

Firefox It also maintains a websocket open for push notifications, which is linked to a unique identifier and can therefore potentially be used for tracking and which cannot be easily deactivated, ”said Douglas Leigth.

Safari, the browserApple, is pinned to its default home page. His fault: disclosing information to several third parties, including Facebook and Twitter. Unfortunately, these sites are not known for their privacy. This integration also allows them to install cookies without the user's consent.

Microsoft Edge and Yandex deemed "worrying"

But the worst students according to the study are Microsoft Edge and Yandex, the browser of the Russian digital giant. This software is "much more worrying than the other browsers studied" in terms of privacy.

The two browsers thus transmit identifiers linked to the terminal itself. These “can be used for new browser installations and for different applications running on the same device. "

Yandex even goes as far as sending a hash of the hardware serial number and MAC address to the backend servers. And these data transfers cannot be blocked in the configuration settings.

In addition to the automatic search function that shares details of the web pages visited, the two transmit information about the web pages to servers that seem unrelated to the automatic search, ”concludes the report, discouraging Yandex and Edge from doing so.