Brave Software to Abandon Strict Fingerprinting Protection in Browser
Brave Software has announced its decision to abandon strict protection from fingerprinting in its browser, citing compatibility issues with various websites. The Printing Protection feature in Brave is designed to enhance user privacy by preventing fingerprinting, the process of compiling digital prints to track users.
Fingerprinting technology collects various data about the browser and device, which is then combined to create a unique profile for identification purposes. Brave offers two defense modes: standard and strict, both of which block well-known fingerprinting methods.
However, over time, the Brave team realized that the strict regime was causing more problems than it solved, both for the project and its customers. Furthermore, only around 0.5% of Brave users opt for the strict mode, with the majority sticking to the default settings.
Ironically, these 0.5% of users are more vulnerable to tracking despite using a more aggressive lock, as they stand out in comparison to the rest of the users. As a result, Brave has decided to discontinue the strict protection mode.
The standard protection mode will remain and will be enhanced and optimized. Brave emphasizes that its standard protection is already the most extensive and reliable among popular browsers. The unique distortion of data in Brave complicates fingerprinting and aims to provide maximum protection for all users while maintaining compatibility with websites.
The strict mode has already been removed from the test version of Brave’s Nightly, and the changes will soon be rolled out to the standard versions for Android and desktop computers. Currently, the latest stable version is 1.61, so users can expect these changes within the next couple of months. According to statistics, the 0.5% of users who opt for strict fingerprinting protection amount to over 330,000 people out of the 65.5 million monthly active users.