{"id":47743,"date":"2023-04-08T18:04:38","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T18:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/brave"},"modified":"2026-09-20T10:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:06:06","slug":"brave","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/brave","title":{"rendered":"Brave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/brave-square-lion.jpg\" alt=\"Brave\" class=\"boxpad wp-image-80006 size-full alignright\" style=\"margin-top:0;\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/brave-square-lion.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/brave-square-lion-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Brave is a free, open-source web browser developed by Brave Software.<\/strong> It differs from many browsers by including protections against ads, trackers and cross-site identification techniques without initially requiring an extension.<\/p>\n<p>Desktop and Android versions use Chromium as their foundation, while the iOS version uses WebKit. Brave can open most websites and Chromium-compatible extensions while adding its own privacy controls and services.<\/p>\n\n<h2>How Brave works<\/h2>\n<p>Brave loads and renders pages in a similar way to other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/browser\">web browsers<\/a>. Its main distinction is <strong>Shields<\/strong>, an integrated system that examines browsing requests and blocks particular ads, trackers, scripts and cross-site <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/cookie\">cookies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Protections can be configured globally or for an individual website. If blocking prevents a page from working correctly, the user can adjust Shields for that domain without disabling protection elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>Brave was co-founded by Brendan Eich and introduced its first versions in 2016. Its development combines the open-source Chromium engine with project-specific components released under open-source licences.<\/p>\n<h2>Privacy in Brave<\/h2>\n<p>Brave enables several protections by default:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ad and tracker blocking:<\/strong> Shields acts as an integrated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/ad-blocker\">ad blocker<\/a> and restricts requests associated with tracking.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cookie controls:<\/strong> it can block third-party cookies and manage stored site data.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fingerprinting protection:<\/strong> it modifies or restricts certain signals used to recognise a browser.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Connection upgrades:<\/strong> it attempts to use HTTPS when the website and connection support it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Global Privacy Control:<\/strong> it can communicate a preference not to sell or share personal data.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Private windows with Tor:<\/strong> the desktop version can route particular windows through the Tor network.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>A private window does not make its user anonymous.<\/strong> It primarily prevents part of the history and local data from remaining stored after the session closes. Brave&#8217;s Tor windows provide additional network protection but do not replace Tor Browser when strong anonymity is required.<\/p>\n<p>Brave documents these functions on its <a href=\"https:\/\/brave.com\/privacy-features\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">privacy protections<\/a> page.<\/p>\n<h2>Brave services<\/h2>\n<p>The browser integrates or supports several optional services:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Brave Search:<\/strong> a search engine developed by the same company that can also be used from other browsers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brave Rewards:<\/strong> an optional system that can provide Basic Attention Token for participating in its advertising programme and supporting creators. Availability depends on the country and associated services.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brave Wallet:<\/strong> an integrated wallet for managing particular digital assets and connecting to compatible applications.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brave Sync:<\/strong> synchronises selected data between devices through a sync chain.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brave Leo:<\/strong> an artificial intelligence assistant integrated into the browser, with free and paid functions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>VPN and Firewall:<\/strong> an optional paid service available on particular platforms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These services are separate from the basic Shields protections. <strong>Cryptocurrency, rewards, artificial intelligence and VPN services are not required to browse with Brave.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Brave limitations<\/h2>\n<p>Blocking resources can interfere with players, forms, authentication systems or advertising-supported elements. When a page fails, it is useful to identify which protection intervened before disabling Shields completely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brave reduces particular forms of tracking but does not remove every privacy or security risk.<\/strong> An internet provider, signed-in account, extension, malicious download or voluntarily supplied information can still expose or identify the user.<\/p>\n<p>The browser and its extensions also need to be kept updated. Compatibility with Chromium extensions does not guarantee that every extension is safe or privacy-preserving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Brave is, how Shields works, which privacy protections and optional services it includes, and its main limitations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":80008,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1098],"class_list":["post-47743","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-private-browsing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/47743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=47743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}