Privacy-Focused Brave Browser Aims to ‘Cut Out’ Google With De-AMP
Brave, the popular crypto-native browser Brave has just announced the “De-AMP” feature, this feature is able to “cut out” Google and enable web users visit publishers’ websites directly. This move is a step forward by Brave in improving user privacy on the internet.
The De-AMP feature is built on top of the existing Brave Shields, which is a set of tools that allows users to control their privacy settings on the web. With De-AMP turned on, when users click on a link to a website that uses AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), they will be redirected to the original URL of the page, rather than the AMP version.
This is a significant change, as it means that users will no longer be funneled through Google’s servers when they click on links from within the Brave browser. This also has the potential to speed up web browsing, as AMP pages are often slower to load than regular web pages.
The new feature is already available in Brave’s Nightly and Beta versions. it will also be included in the upcoming version 1.38 for Desktop and Android. Brave announced in a blog post that the feature will “rewrite links and URLs to prevent users from visiting AMP [Accelerated Mobile Pages] pages altogether,”.
“And in cases where that is not possible, Brave will watch as pages are being fetched and redirect users away from AMP pages before the page is even rendered, preventing AMP / Google code from being loaded and executed,” Brave added.
AMP was launched in 2015 as “an open-source initiative aiming to make the web better for all.” However, the fact that it was proposed by Google and the majority of its contributors are also from Google has raised concerns about the product. Google has been criticized for its handling of user data in the past, and the company has been fined several times for violating antitrust laws. In March, the European Commission hit Google with a $1.7 billion fine for “abusive” practices related to its Adsense advertising business.
AMP’s main purpose is to create a smoother and faster mobile browsing experience for users. AMP makes the pages load faster since they don’t have to go through all the external scripts that a content publisher might otherwise have. WHat this also means is that user data is collected by Google and then served back to advertisers and other third parties.
This is where Brave comes in. The company’s CEO Brendan Eich has been quite vocal about his privacy-centric approach to browsing. In an interview with The Next Web, he said:
“The problem is that Google makes money by collecting data on you and then selling ads based on that data. We think there’s a better way, which is not to collect the data in the first place.”
According to Brave, this new feature is necessary since Google’s AMP is bad for privacy, security, and internet experience. Brave also states that AMP from Google further helps them monopolize and control the direction of the Web.
The move comes as a part of Brave’s larger mission to “cut out” Google and build a more private and secure Web. The company has also created its own ad platform that pays users in cryptocurrency for viewing ads.
What do you think? Will this new feature make you switch to Brave? Let us know in the comments.
I am a bitcoin and crypto currency writer. I also work as a professional trader, and I have experience with stock trading and bitcoin trading. In my work, I aim to provide clear and concise information that helps people understand these complex topics.
