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Brave appears to install VPN Services without user consent
(www.ghacks.net)
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this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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Okay, this article makes it sound like they found some hidden thing deep in obscure windows settings about brave doing something bad.
On truth, they just installed Windows Services for their VPN to enable users to use the service. That's what many apps do for dozens of reasons.
I dislike Brave as much as the next guy, but let's stick to things they really fuck up and not make Up issues that aren't there.
As somebody who routinely checks their window services looking for rogue applications adding yet another background service. It's not cool. I don't expect my browser to have a background service. Chrome has a background service updater in Windows. That's terrible too.
I agree it is people looking for reasons to criticize. However, I do think VPN or anything that modifies your route tables should be subjected to more scrutiny than other app features due to potential for abuse. I wish browsers wouldn't bundle them at all, or install them as part of their base.
Especially considering they were injecting affiliate links/replacing affiliate links with their own, everything they do should be seen through that lens. They literally thought it was either OK to do which means that behavior like this is going to happen and keep happening with them, OR they thought they could get away with it which ends up with the same result.