This is the eighth in an ongoing, regular series of blog posts, describing new privacy-related features in Brave.  Written by Peter Snyder, Director

What’s Brave Done For My Privacy Lately? Episode #8: Grab Bag Part 2

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2021-07-22 18:00:06

This is the eighth in an ongoing, regular series of blog posts, describing new privacy-related features in Brave.  Written by Peter Snyder, Director of Privacy.

In order to stay one step ahead of online trackers, Brave regularly releases new privacy features and improvements. This post discusses four recent changes in Brave that achieve better user privacy and Web compatibility.

Since the release of Brave browser version 1.25 (on desktop and Android) a few weeks ago, users now have more control over how long sites can access powerful, but privacy-sensitive browser features, like geolocation sensors, webcams, and microphones.

Previously Brave used the default Chrome behavior for permissions, which limited users to giving access to the relevant capability forever, or never. There was, for example, no easy way to say “this site can use my webcam while I have the page open, but ask me again next time.”  Limited “all or nothing” options encourage oversharing of data, which benefits trackers who would like to record as much information about you as possible (for example, Google Maps, Facebook ,etc.). In fact, when Apple found that, when users had the option to limit how long apps had access to geolocation data, users ended up sharing 68% less geolocation data , an enormous privacy improvement.

Brave users can now choose to give sites temporary access to permission-protected capabilities to better protect their privacy. Common examples of permission-protected browser capabilities include web cameras, microphones, location information, and motion sensors, among others. 

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