Brave Browser Under Fire in Tech Community for Unconsented VPN Installation
Description
This image is a screenshot of a thread from a technology-focused online forum, likely 4chan's /g/ board, discussing a controversy involving the Brave web browser. The post, identifiable by the URL structure '/g/96752876/', shares a link to a ghacks.net article. The article's headline, 'Brave appears to install VPN Services without user consent', is prominently displayed above a generic stock photo of a laptop with code on the screen. The original poster has added the question 'Bravebros?', a common term used in such forums to address fans of a product, in this case, seeking their response to the negative news. The core of this post is the technical and ethical issue of a privacy-focused browser allegedly installing software components without explicit user permission. For developers, this is a significant breach of trust, raising concerns about software bloat, unwanted background processes, and a company acting against its own stated principles of privacy and user control
Comments
41Comment deleted
Brave's new feature is zero-click VPN installation. It's so private, even *you* don't know it's running. They've finally achieved statelessness by removing the user's state of consent
Brave silently bundling a VPN is the browser edition of the ops team kubectl-injecting a sidecar into every prod pod on Friday afternoon and labeling the commit “zero-trust”
The irony of a privacy-focused browser silently installing services without consent is like a security consultant leaving their laptop unlocked at DefCon - it's not the vulnerability that hurts, it's the betrayal of fundamental principles you literally built your reputation on
When your 'privacy-focused' browser decides to practice security through obscurity by installing VPN services without asking - because nothing says 'we respect your privacy' quite like making unilateral decisions about your network stack. The real brave move here is trusting any browser that thinks informed consent is just a suggestion, not a requirement
Brave: npm install vpn --silent --no-audit --ignore-consent
Nothing screams privacy like silently shipping a privileged VPN daemon; it’s opt‑in the same way surprise cronjobs are “scheduled features.”
Privacy-first browser quietly dropping a VPN daemon is the version of Zero Trust where the vendor trusts the user zero - check your services list before the marketing page
Read the primary sources. Comment deleted
What is so terrible with installing some module without using it, aside from occupying extra drive space? Majority of people do not use most of a program's functions anyway. Comment deleted
i like how every time that brave is once again is found out to be malicuous, brave users are screeching so hard my nigger, no fucking shit Comment deleted
how is this malicious? i have never ever used brave before so i can only judge by the limited information i've been fed by the media but other browser running companies seem to do marginally more fucked up things on a constant basis, like embedding livestreams into the browser itself or spending a big part of their money sponsoring non-existent organizations Comment deleted
not 'exactly' this article, but various previous ones Comment deleted
Brave has done similar things in the past (inserting their own referrals into crypto links, etc). So it can already be considered malicious because it's bloated with garbage and ads, and completely untrustworthy in terms of any privacy because of past mistakes. Comment deleted
brave has repeatedly shown it gives no fucks about user choice, in spite of all their talk about being better than google. they only backtrack after people get mad about things Comment deleted
Linux users of Brave suffer much more. It spawns a daemon! Comment deleted
wellthat was cheap but i still had a laugh Comment deleted
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux! Comment deleted
obligatory fuck stallman Comment deleted
“I use Linux as my operating system,” I state proudly to the unkempt, bearded man. He swivels around in his desk chair with a devilish gleam in his eyes, ready to beardsplain with extreme precision. “Actually”, he says with a grin, “Linux is just the kernel. You use GNU+Linux!’ I don’t miss a beat and reply with a smirk, “I use Alpine, a distro that doesn’t include the GNU coreutils, or any other GNU code. It’s Linux, but it’s not GNU+Linux.” The smile quickly drops from the man’s face. His body begins convulsing and he foams at the mouth and drops to the floor with a sickly thud. As he writhes around he screams “I-IT WAS COMPILED WITH GCC! THAT MEANS IT’S STILL GNU!” Coolly, I reply “If windows was compiled with gcc, would that make it GNU?” I interrupt his response with “-and work is being made on the kernel to make it more compiler-agnostic. Even you were correct, you won’t be for long.” With a sickly wheeze, the last of the man’s life is ejected from his body. He lies on the floor, cold and limp. I’ve muslpilled Mr. Stallman to death. Comment deleted
this text is very literature rich and beyond my everyday vocabulary Comment deleted
What about Debian GNU/kFreeBSD though? Does/has anyone use that monster? Comment deleted
sounds horrible Comment deleted
Remember when Brave hijacked URLs? Comment deleted
no Comment deleted
It's one way to recieve funding https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2020/06/06/the-brave-web-browser-is-hijacking-links-and-inserting-affiliate-codes/ Comment deleted
lmao, cringe Comment deleted
so it puts a referrer link instead of the actual links, right? Comment deleted
they just added a referral id as a GET parameter Comment deleted
it's still the same link, but with an extra bit that tells the website that the user got there via brave, so brave gets a bit of money from that website Comment deleted
OMG, never used brave as well said in the article “As such, it’s a favourite with crypto people — or ones who don’t know how to install uBlock Origin, anyway”, but couldn’t imagine it was so shitty 🤯 why to use it in the first place? Comment deleted
it's yet another way of tracking the user via fingerprinting Comment deleted
thorium ftw Comment deleted
…no. just no. Comment deleted
why not just use TOR ? Comment deleted
it's got some important features disabled. you have to balance being trackable with being usable Comment deleted
So how about LibreWolf? Comment deleted
unintuitive defaults. not worth it if you know how to change some basic privacy settings Comment deleted
Gotcha, what would you recommend? Comment deleted
stock Comment deleted
I was already thinking to myself, “Please recommended Safari or something, it wouldn't be wrong but it would still be funny somehow” Would you even recommend this when it comes to Edge on Windows? Comment deleted
safari is fine, just a bit outdated when it comes to implementing modern standards I meant stock firefox, not stock browser of whatever OS you're using. Edge is terrible Comment deleted