Browsers

The browser is the single most important piece of software most of us use. Aside from all amsartassphone "apps" taken together, the browser collects more of our behavior and leaks more of that information to outsiders than anything else.

All major browsers with one exception are now made by behavior-collection empires, or are based on free software, Chromium, from which Google derives Chrome and Brave derives Brave.

You have every reason to use a browser that isn't, Firefox. Firefox is made by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, entirely of free software anyone can study. copy, modify, reuse and redistribute, which keeps it honest. Please do consider using Firefox all the time, but certainly in my courses.

The [https://brave.com Brave]] browser is produced by a for-profit free software maker, Brave Software, Inc., also seeking to create a browser that protects your privacy. It is the brainchild of Brendan Eich, long a leader at the Mozilla Foundation. It uses Google's Chromium, the free software at the heart of the Chrome browser, while Firefox is a codebase of its own. Because Chrome so dominates the user side of the Web, Brave benefits from "working like" Chrome, at the cost of relying upon Google technology. It is, however, a fundamentally different product, with a view of the role of the browser in the Web, and a business model, that are distinctive and a commitment to your privacy that is the antithesis of Googledom. If for some reason you don't want to use Firefox, you should definitely try Brave.

-- EbenMoglen - 14 Jan 2022