Sorry in advance for what might appear to be rambling (because it kind of is), but I had a few thoughts and I’m very curious how the community sees these things. I’ll try to do my best to condense them.
After reading through the discussion beneath a post about yet another Brave scandal, I decided to look up the marketshare of chromium. According to statcounter 73.43% of browsers used are chromium based (Chrome, Edge, Opera, Samsung Internet) and only a measly 2.8% use Firefox.
About the statistics: 73% of access to the internet for humans and bots alike go through software largely developed by one player. What are your thoughts on the effect this probably has on the development of the internet as a whole?
About brave and other wildly popular privacy focused products: compared to a lot of people in this fine community I’m a casual-privacist, but I do my best to review what sort of software/hardware I use, weigh opsec and convenience, etc. I also try to stay away from privacy influencers (is that a thing yet? If not, it should be) and the products they tend to shill, which brings me to my next point. What do you think about the scandals surrounding supposedly secure products and services that were heavily pushed by influencers (like brave, all kinds of laughable vpns, password managers, etc.)? Do you think the people who shill these products help or hinder tech literacy? I have a suspicion that most people flirting with the idea of privacy for the first time choose these products and services the same way they would buy a car or a toaster; by googling (affiliate links galore in SEO hell) or watching a video review on youtube and they only long for feeling safe (I’m safe because the talking head said so). What would be a great way to improve the tech/privacy literacy situation? How do we upgrade privacy from being a buzzword in ad campaigns to a life skill (maybe not the best way to describe it, but you get the point)?
Lastly, and thank you for bearing with me here. What’s wrong with Firefox?! Is it the marketing (or lack thereof)?
tldr: basically a long showerthought and an invitation for discussion about the unfair marketshare of chromium, and “privacy focused” products shilled by influencers.
Disclaimer: I don’t know how accurate the linked data is, I did not collect it or review it and I don’t know how trusted the site is supposed to be. True that I have some negative opinions about Brave and I have never used it. Probably never will and the only reason is that it just seems a bit fucky to me, even if it doesn’t have any dangerous faults. Reading the rules, I didn’t find anything that prohibits posta like this, but if I’m mistaken… sorry.
Even vanilla Firefox is better from a privacy point of view than something like Edge or Chrome (both from companies who really want your data), and if you just substitute the name IE for Edge you understand where a big chunk of their user numbers come from. Firefox is solid, even with bugs and glitches it’s been my choice since the beginning (to replace its predecessor, Netscape, another solid one).
Edge is at least solid. In an environment like work where privacy is nonexistent I use edge. Mainly because I have/work in multiple azure tenants and this allows me to maintain SSO and separation while still easily switching and syncing data. It’s leagues beyond IE.
That said, beyond that very specific use case (but it is a pretty big use case), I really don’t have much use for it.
I agree it’s better than IE was, but let’s be fair - that’s a low bar. I also (have to) use Edge in a workplace, and for controlled intranet areas it’s great. Ironically I still have to use IE partially, since it’s a depreciated and not replaced part of Excel/VBA’s web browser connection. That change last year made dealing with macros that pull info a lot more difficult to work with in security popups that can’t be automated away.
Yeah. The bar was so low it was a black hole for sure.