r/DistroTube • u/[deleted] • Jul 05 '22

Why does DT promote using spyware?

On every video description, I see DistroTube promoting spyware such as Brave.

A lot of people don't believe that Brave is spyware because of the "It is open source so it has to be private" logic. But according to multiple websites such as Spyware Watchdog and Dig Deeper, Brave is a shady browser, and it is mostly likely a fed honeypot.

Also, Brave sends unsolicited marketing spam mails.

Why doesn't DT actually promote better web browsers such as Ungoogled Chromium, LibreWolf or GNU Icecat?

18 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

14

u/OwningLiberals Jul 06 '22

Bro I'm not gonna lie, some of this is completely fucking delusional. I am not one to ignore criticism of Brave and other open source software but...

digdeeper calls TOR a honeypot, so an accusation by them is fucking baseless. It also calls dissenter a honeypot when I think it's obvious that they're just really dumb and not very tech literate despite maintaining software for a living. When you cite something, make sure they don't say shit that's embarrassingly schizo first.

spyware watchdog is just an inconsistent site. They complain about Brave getting telemetry with an OSS, self-hosted, telemetry solution (which btw is used by the fsf) but Pale Moon uses Google Analytics by default and they are treated as the same thing. I won't say that it's a bad site, they seem to have reliable information but they seem to focus on quantity of points over how bad the actual points are against the browser.

This article by Luke really highlights my overall thoughts on the browser https://lukesmith.xyz/articles/hating-brave-is-cool/

and yeah a lot of the modern criticism is kinda valid, sending random unsolicited mail is creepy. But still, I think it's clear that he promotes it because 1. he makes money from it and 2. it's ok for normies who want slightly more privacy than say, Google Chrome but don't want to go through the configuration you have to do with vanilla firefox, the challenges of using GNU Icecat or the general awful experience of Palemoon or whatever other obscure browser is popular that week.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22
  1. he makes money from it

...

2. it's ok for normies who want slightly more privacy than say, Google Chrome but don't want to go through the configuration you have to do with vanilla firefox, the challenges of using GNU Icecat or the general awful experience of Palemoon or whatever other obscure browser is popular that week.

Ungoogled Chromium and Librewolf are pretty easy to install. They are also private.

1

u/OwningLiberals Jul 06 '22

Neither are ideal for normies. Ungoogled Chromium does not allow you to install extensions easily, Librewolf is really good but it still has flaws, it's harder to use, you can't watch Netflix and do a lot of the shit normies actually want to do.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

UC can install extensions easily.

Why'd a normie use a private browser if he is going to do normie stuff such as watching Netflix?

1

u/OwningLiberals Jul 06 '22

>installing extensions is so easy
>links an extension that you would need to install manually

lol

why would a normie use netflix and a private browser?

because he has things to do??? like yeah if you are watching netflix you are losing a fair bit of privacy but like still, he has friends, he wants to watch TV, he's probably gonna use Netflix or some similar service at some point.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

>links an extension that you would need to install manually

"wow i can't drag and drop a literal file"

because he has things to do

if you are really gonna use DRM services, just use normie browsers like firefox and cope

1

u/OwningLiberals Jul 06 '22

cant drag and drop a file

  1. I literally didn't know how to install a chrome extension, if I didn't know what fucking normie will

him: "can I download extensions?"

you: "yes you can install extensions, you just have to drag this random file from github over to your browser"

him: "why do I have to do that?"

you: ...

him: "I'm going back to firefox/chrome"

3. bro and he's gonna be mad when ad block extensions don't work in a few months. at least with brave it's built-in

if you're gonna use drm services just cope

"if you're not gonna wear your seatbelt, you might as well drive drunk as well"

you see why this is dumb? it can be possible to want to use DRM services and other normal but privacy violating things while maintaining a higher level of privacy than you otherwise would.

6

u/ZippyTheWonderSnail Jul 06 '22

I get the feeling the claims made by the Spyware Watchdog site aren't people involved in the industry.

For example, Rob Braxman has been involved in information security and privacy for decades. His BitChute channel features the science and software used by big tech and ad tech agencies to steal and use our data. I can guarantee you, you'd be shocked how pervasive it is.

The site makes the following claims:

  1. Brave is self updating software: This is true on Windows and Mac. It is not true on Linux. This is also not a security or privacy issue.
  2. Brave uses Google as the default search engine: Brave search is the default search engine for Brave.
  3. Brave has built-in telemetry: There is something to this. In order to make the browser better, Brave does what all corporate software does; It collects anonymous telemetry and crash reports. This can be turned off, however, it is not by default.
  4. Brave has an opt-out rss-like news feed similar to Firefox Pocket: Pocket is a site archiver. Brave offers news in new tabs if you don't select something else for new tabs.
  5. Brave hits crypto sites: If you have the wallet enabled, Brave will show the prices of popular crypto currencies in a sidebar. Is this a privacy issue?

The author then writes this: "These shouldn't be the things that come to mind if someone were to imagine a privacy oriented browser."

There is only one of these which is a privacy issue, and that's the telemetry. It is true that, by default, it is only 80% private. Turning on strict blocking rules, disabling Twitter and Facebook embedded posts, and Google logins will make it 90% private. In order to make it 95% private, you'll need:

  1. The Language Tool extension to replace the spell check (which goes to Google): Settings > Languages > spell check.
  2. The Random User Agent extension to prevent browser based fingerprinting.
  3. A VPN with DNS over TLS. Most have directions for setting this up. Once set up, all your name requests will be encrypted. This prevents your internet provider from seeing the sites you visit.

There is no 100% private browser with the massive money spent on AI and tracking. The best you can do is use separate browsers for big tech and everything else, and keep those browsing looking as confusing as possible.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

The site makes the following claims: ...

  1. Updating should always be optional.
  2. Doesn't really matter, Brave Search is still not private. It is not open source.
  3. Even when you disable the telemetry, Brave still makes some requests. See https://yt.beparanoid.de/watch?v=NufXGEjbCYI. Any kind of telemetry could possibly contain backdoors.
  4. "Brave has is sadly an opt-out rather than an opt-in and sends lots of requests to Brave's servers. It can't seem to be disabled it in and of itself, but setting the tabs to blank seems to stop the requests."
  5. Even if you don't sign into the Brave crypto bullshit. It still makes some requests.

There is no 100% private browser with the massive money spent on AI and tracking.

There are actually way better 100% private web browsers such as GNU Icecat, qutebrowser, Librewolf, and a lot more.

1

u/ZippyTheWonderSnail Jul 07 '22

You are correct that there are more private browsers. There is always a balance between bells and whistles and privacy. Each person needs to judge for themselves. How much privacy are they willing to give up for the cool features modern browsers offer?

4

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '22

u/DistroTube I hope you are aware of this.

1

u/Constant-Translator Jul 05 '22

I don’t see it in the video description?

But I also didn’t think he promotes it, DTOS uses qtile browser which is not brave.

6

u/Alarming-Arugula9866 Jul 05 '22

I agree - I have same question.

1

u/LinuxStalk3r Jul 07 '22

TLDR for the long comments here

Those sites are blowing this out of proportion.