中国和芬兰关于建立和推进面向未来的新型...
| Brave | |||||||||||
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.svg){kind=logo} | |||||||||||
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| Developer(s) | Brave Software, Inc.[1] | ||||||||||
| Initial release | 12 Oct 2016 v1.0.3 (Android) 14 Dec 2018 v1.7 (iOS) | ||||||||||
| Stable release(s) | |||||||||||
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| Repository | github | ||||||||||
| Written in | JavaScript, Swift, C++ | ||||||||||
| Engines | Blink, V8, (WebKit on iOS/iPadOS) | ||||||||||
| Operating system |
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| Platform | x86, x86-64, IA-32, ARM, AArch64 | ||||||||||
| Type | Web browser | ||||||||||
| License | MPL 2.0[2] | ||||||||||
| Website | brave | ||||||||||
Brave is a free and open-source web browser which was first released in 2016. It is developed by US-based Brave Software, Inc.[3] and based on the Chromium web browser. The browser is marketed as a privacy-focused web browser and includes features such as built-in advertisement blocking, protections against browser fingerprinting and a private browsing mode that integrates the Tor anonymity network. Brave also incorporates its own advertising through a rewards system based on cryptocurrency, which allows users to earn Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) by opting-in to view ads served through its ad network. While Brave has been praised for its privacy protections and features, it has faced criticism over early plans of replacing publisher's ads with its own and missteps surrounding its handling of affiliate links and privacy vulnerabilities in its private browsing mode.
History
[edit]Founding and early development (2015–2016)
[edit]Brave Software was founded in 2015 by Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and former Mozilla CEO who left the organization after coming under fire for his support of eliminating the right of same-sex couples to marry, and Brian Bondy, a programmer who had formerly worked at Mozilla.[4][5] In 2016, the company released the Brave browser positioning it as a privacy-focused browser that blocks ads and trackers by default.[6][7] Early plans for the browser proposed creating a system through which Brave could replace the ads shown by websites with advertisements of its own in a manner that would be privacy preserving.[8][6]
Acquisitions and transitions (2016–2018)
[edit]In 2016, Brave Software acquired Link Bubble, an Android web browser that preloaded websites in floating bubbles before users clicked on links while browsing text on their phones.[9][10] The Link Bubble app was subsequently re-branded into the Brave browser. However, the unfamiliar interface, along with limitations in how Android's WebView engine handled rendering websites on background threads, led Brave to separate the two products in 2017. Brave was re-released as a conventional tabbed browser, while Link Bubble continued as a standalone app.[11]
In August 2016, the company had received at least US$7 million in angel investments from venture capital firms, including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Propel Venture Partners, Pantera Capital, Foundation Capital and the Digital Currency Group.[12]
In 2017, Brave introduced the Basic Attention Token (BAT), an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency.[13] Brave intended for it to be used as a medium through which publishers and content creators, who would have typically relied on advertising revenue to be paid directly by the person viewing the content.[14][15] The project raised approximately $35 million through an initial coin offering[15] and was eventually integrated into the Brave Rewards system in 2018 where users could watch ads through the browser which would in turn earn them the token, which they could subsequently share with creators and publishers.[13][16][17]
Until late 2018, Brave was built using a fork of Electron called Muon, which the company claimed offered improved security over the standard Electron framework. In October 2018, Brave announced that it would transition to building the browser on top of the Chromium codebase.[18] Chromium also served as the foundational codebase for browsers like Google Chrome, Vivaldi and Opera at that time. Despite Chromium being maintained by Google, Brave stated that it would not integrate any Google services into the browser.[19][18] The company cited the need to reduce the maintenance burden of supporting a custom user-interface framework as the primary motivation for the change.[19] According to Brave, the switch resulted in a 22 percent performance improvement over earlier versions.[20] The final Muon-based version of Brave was released in January 2019, after which the Muon variant was declared end-of-life and users were encouraged to migrate to the Chromium-based version.[18][21]
Expansion (2019-present)
[edit]In 2019, Brave released their 1.0 version across all platforms, the 1.0 version signaled that the browser was finally out of beta and was ready for mass adoption.[22] The 1.0 released the Brave Ads system to their iOS browser version and introduced a way for users to sell their Basic Attention Tokens on cryptocurrency exchanges through a partnership with a cryptocurrency exchange company called Uphold.[22] Users who signed up to accounts on Uphold were able to exchange their BATs for an equivalent amount US dollars.[23]
In 2020, Brave introduced Brave Today, a privacy-preserving news feed integrated into the browser's new tab page. The feature delivered personalized news content without revealing users' IP addresses to publishers or ad networks, using Brave's custom content delivery network (CDN).[24] However, Gizmodo noted that while the feed avoided third-party tracking, users could still be shown ads through Brave's own Brave Ads program instead of publisher-served ads.[25] The feature was later renamed Brave News.[26] Later that year, a user discovered the Brave browser inserted referral codes to the end of URLs of cryptocurrency companies.[27][28] Brave specifically targeted cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Coinbase and Trezor with which it had advertising agreements with. Brave also added their referral codes to web search links when a user searched the terms "bitcoin", "ethereum" or "litecoin" in their browser.[29] In response to the criticism after this practice was discovered, the CEO, Brendan Eich said that the addition of the referral codes in the URL bar was a mistake and that the addition of such advertising would be made opt-in.[27][28][30]
On March 3, 2021, Brave Software announced that they would acquire Tailcat, a search engine developed by the team that was formerly responsible for the privacy search and browser products at Cliqz, the company that owned the popular privacy browser extension Ghostery.[31][32][33] In October 2021, Tailcat was rebranded Brave Search and became Brave's default search engine on new installations.[34] In the same year, Brave also launched a cryptocurrency wallet built into the browser claiming that it was less susceptible to phishing than similar products by MetaMask which could be installed as browser extensions. Brave also claimed that their implementation required less CPU resources to operate. During its launch it primarily supported Ethereum or Ethereum-based blockchains and did not have support for Bitcoin or Dogecoin cryptocurrencies.[35]
In 2023, Brave launched Brave Leo, a privacy-preserving large-language model that would power AI features inside the browser like a chatbot that would summarize web pages and answer questions about a page.[36][37] To prevent user-data from reaching the large-language model providers, Brave claimed to use a HTTPS proxy and host models on their own servers. When a user made a request, the request was routed through Brave's server that would hide and obfuscate the user's IP address, Brave claims to store no logs of user's interactions on their servers.[38] In 2024, the models were rolled out to Android and iOS devices[39][40] and AI was subsequently integrated into Brave Search as well.[41]
Reception
[edit]Privacy
[edit]Reception of the Brave browser has been mixed. The browser has received coverage for its privacy-focused features, including its built-in ad blocker[6] and protections against tracking techniques such as browser fingerprinting,[42] local port enumeration,[43] cross-site leaks,[44] and bounce tracking.[45] These features are bundled under the Brave Shields system, which comes enabled by default.[46] Brave also includes a Private Window mode that routes browsing activity through the Tor network, that claimed to increase anonymity when accessing websites.[47] Independent tests have generally supported some of Brave's privacy claims.[48][49][46] In tests conducted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Cover Your Tracks project, Brave was one of the few browsers to receive a "strong protection" rating[50] and was found to include randomized fingerprinting protections.[48] Similarly, Brave scores highly on PrivacyTests.org, an independent comparison site maintained by privacy researcher Arthur Edelstein. While Edelstein is employed by Brave Software, he has stated that the project is maintained independently of his work at the company.[49] A 2021 academic study comparing data collection practices across browsers found that Brave transmitted the least amount of identifying data to its parent company.[51]
However, Brave's privacy practices have not been without criticism. In 2020, the company was found to be appending affiliate referral codes to the end of certain cryptocurrency exchange URLs typed into the browser's address bar. The practice applied to exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase, and was later discovered to extend to suggested search queries for terms like "bitcoin" and "ethereum." Following media attention, Brave CEO Brendan Eich called the behavior a mistake, and stated that the use of affiliate content would be made opt-in going forward.[28][29] The browser's Private Window with Tor feature has also been subject to scrutiny. In 2021, researchers reported that DNS queries for .onion addresses were being leaked outside of the Tor network due to a misconfiguration in how Brave handled name resolution. The company later patched the issue.[47] In 2022, Brave faced further criticism for bundling its paid virtual private network (VPN) product, Brave Firewall + VPN, into installations of its Windows browser, even for users who had not subscribed to the service.[52]
Revenue model
[edit]Brave's revenue model has also been the subject of debate. The browser originally proposed replacing ads on websites with its own privacy-preserving advertisements and sharing revenue with publishers. This plan was met with concern by web publishers who argued that Brave was redirecting revenue streams that would have otherwise gone to content creators and publishers.[53][54][55] In 2018, YouTuber Tom Scott revealed that users had tipped his channel through the Brave Rewards program despite him not having signed up for the program or consenting to receive funds. Tom Scott noted that Brave had not paid him the tipped money and did not clearly show users that he was not enrolled in the program. In response, Brave subsequently updated the system to return unclaimed tips when the intended recipient was not verified with the platform and correctly show publishers who were not affiliated with the platform.[56][57]
References
[edit]- ^ "Company Overview of Brave Software Inc". Bloomberg. 4 April 2018. Archived from the original on 17 November 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
- ^ "brave-browser/LICENSE at master". GitHub. 23 June 2021. Archived from the original on 19 August 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
- ^ "Business Search – Business Entities – Business Programs | California Secretary of State". businesssearch.sos.ca.gov. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
- ^ "Mystery startup from ex-Mozilla CEO aims to go where tech titans won't". CNET. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ "Brave browser promises faster Web by banishing intrusive ads". CNET. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ a b c McCarthy, Kieren. "New open-source ad-blocking web browser emerges from brain of ex-Mozilla boss Eich". Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ "Former Mozilla CEO Tackles Ad Blocking Via 'Brave' Browser". PCMAG. 21 January 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Price, Rob. "The former CEO of Mozilla is launching a web browser that blocks all ads by default". Business Insider. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ "Clearing Google's hurdle, Brave's ad-blocking browser arrives". CNET. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ "FOSS BYTES". Open Source for You. 4 (6): 10–14. 2016. ISSN 0974-1054.
- ^ "Unpublishing Link Bubble". Brave. 11 March 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (1 August 2016). "Brave, the ad-blocking browser from former Mozilla CEO, grabs $4.5 million". TechCrunch. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
- ^ a b "How to Earn and Use Cryptocurrency With the Brave Browser". PCMAG. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ "You can get some Brave crypto tokens free to fund website publishers and YouTube stars". CNET. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ a b Russell, Jon (1 June 2017). "Former Mozilla CEO raises $35M in under 30 seconds for his browser startup Brave". TechCrunch. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Kamsky, Andrew (3 July 2023). "A Beginner's Guide To Understanding Brave Browser And BAT". CCN. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Lomas, Natasha (20 June 2018). "Blockchain browser Brave starts opt-in testing of on-device ad targeting". TechCrunch. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ a b c "Brave browser moves to Chromium codebase, now supports Chrome extensions". ZDNET. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ a b "Brave Unveils Development Plans for Upcoming 1.0 Browser Release, Including Transition to Chromium Front-End". Brave. 28 March 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ "The New Brave is 22% Faster". Brave. 18 October 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ "Brave browser goes 'full-Chromium' by adopting Google UI". Computerworld. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ a b Finley, Klint. "The Brave Browser Extends Its Payouts to iOS". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Chaudhry, Aliya (13 November 2019). "Brave 1.0 launches, bringing the privacy-first browser out of beta". The Verge. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Goodin, Dan (10 December 2020). "Brave browser-maker launches privacy-friendly news reader". Ars Technica. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Jones, Rhett (11 December 2020). "Brave Releases Privacy-Focused News Reader". Gizmodo. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ "Brave Introduces Brave News, the Privacy-Preserving News Reader Integrated Into the Browser". Brave. 10 December 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ a b Lyons, Kim (8 June 2020). "Brave browser CEO apologizes for automatically adding affiliate links to cryptocurrency URLs". The Verge. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ a b c "Brave Browser Caught Redirecting Users Through Affiliate Links". PCMAG. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ a b Gerard, David (6 June 2020). "The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes". Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Fearn, Nicholas (9 June 2020). "Brave private browser accused of deceiving users over affiliate links". Tom's Guide. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Vincent, James (15 February 2017). "Ghostery has been bought by the developer of a privacy-focused browser". The Verge. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
- ^ "Brave acquires search engine to offer the first private alternative to Google Search and Google Chrome on both mobile and desktop". Brave. 3 March 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
- ^ Lomas, Natasha (3 March 2021). "Brave is launching its own search engine with the help of ex-Cliqz devs and tech". TechCrunch. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Burgess, Matt. "Privacy-First Browser Brave Is Launching a Search Engine". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Clark, Mitchell (16 November 2021). "Brave built its own crypto wallet into its browser". The Verge. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Weatherbed, Jess (2 November 2023). "Brave responds to Bing and ChatGPT with a new "anonymous and secure" AI chatbot". The Verge. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ "Brave browser's free Leo AI dodges questions about the 2020 election". PCWorld. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Mehta, Ivan (2 November 2023). "Brave's Leo AI assistant is now available to desktop users". TechCrunch. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Lawler, Richard (1 March 2024). "Brave brings its AI browser assistant to Android". The Verge. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ Pierce, David (7 April 2024). "AI is taking over your web browser". The Verge. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ "Brave search engine adds privacy-focused AI - no Google or Bing needed". ZDNET. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
- ^ "Brave to end 'Strict' fingerprinting protection as it breaks websites". BleepingComputer. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ Goodin, Dan (29 June 2023). "Brave aims to curb practice of websites that port scan visitors". Ars Technica. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ "Brave browser to block "open in app" prompts, pool-party attacks". BleepingComputer. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ "Brave browser to tackle 'bounce tracking'". Archived from the original on 27 March 2025. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ a b Radivojevic, Kristina; Clark, Nicholas; Klempay, Anna; Brenner, Paul (May 2024). "Defending novice user privacy: An evaluation of default web browser configurations". Computers & Security. 140: 103784. doi:10.1016/j.cose.2024.103784.
- ^ a b "Brave privacy bug exposes Tor onion URLs to your DNS provider". BleepingComputer. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ a b "Lose the Trackers: The Best Private Browsers for 2025". PCMAG. 24 May 2025. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ a b "Brave roasts DuckDuckGo over Bing privacy exception ? The Register". Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ "I thought my favorite browser blocked trackers but this free privacy tool proved me wrong". ZDNET. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ Leith, Douglas J. (2021). "Web Browser Privacy: What Do Browsers Say When They Phone Home?". IEEE Access. 9: 41615–41627. Bibcode:2021IEEEA...941615L. doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3065243. ISSN 2169-3536.
- ^ Chiara Castro (23 October 2023). "Brave browser under fire for installing its VPN without user permission". TechRadar. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ "U.S. newspapers threaten to sue Brave browser maker over ad-blocking scheme". Computerworld. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ Byrne, Michael (9 April 2016). "Newspaper Publishers Fire Off a Cease and Desist Letter to Ad-Blocking Browser". VICE. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ Hall, Christine (4 January 2023). "Brave: A Great Browser With a Questionable Business Model". FOSS Force. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ "Prominent YouTuber Claims Brave's BAT Payments System Violates GDPR". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on 20 May 2025. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
- ^ Gerard, David (13 January 2019). "Brave web browser no longer claims to fundraise on behalf of others — so that's nice". Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
External links
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