Vivaldi browser?

[krs]

I don't worry about browser privacy any more - well except when it comes to financial sites.

I rather have a browser that reders all websites, well at least most. properly.

All the FI's I'm using, including paypal just recently, use verification via a landline telephone which I think is better than the text verification, at least in Canada where it is easy and quick to take over someones cellphone number.

 

[Rod]

Krs, Passkeys will replace all of that and make 2FA a thing of the past eventually. I already have a passkey for my Google account.

That aside, I have been using Brave for years now with no problems rendering any sites like PayPal or banks but the article linked by SpeedThree550 quite rightly states that without a VPN to hide your IP address your ISP and others can still "see" your activity online:

• Your internet provider can still see every site you visit. And note that internet providers are now forced to log web browsing activity of their customers and provide this data to authorities on request in many countries. In the United States, ISPs log everything and share the data with a huge network of third parties.

It seems that the reason Vivaldi was not rated highly by the author of that article was primarily because of the unique identifier allocated to Vivaldi users which is stored and updated on their data base. At least Vivaldi disclose that, don't believe for a second that other browsers do not do this, and a lot more, especially if you have a subscription which obviously includes Apple, Microsoft, Google and Mozilla. Brave does not require any personal information or subscription from you unless you enrol in their BAT program (optional).

The article also debunks the commonly held opinion about "private" windows; "Using “private” browsing mode only stops your browser from storing cookies, history, and passwords. But it doesn’t actually make you any more “private” to the outside world. Even when browsing in “private” or “incognito” mode, you are still exposed."

Having said all that, note that the site states: "If you buy through links on this site, we may earn a commission, which helps support our mission." At least they tell you that straight up.

Vivaldi offer you a free email account [email protected] which I opted to take up so yes, they do have personal information on me but I've been using the macOS version for 5 years+ and haven't noticed any issues with that. From the very start Vivaldi and Brave always focussed heavily on ad blocking and anti-tracking. Back then the only reason I did not adopt Vivaldi as my full time web browser back then was because there was no iOS version, now there is.

At the end of the day it's mostly about tracking and ads for me and I do use a VPN all the time.

As an example of the differences in ad blocking I've attached the below examples:

Firefox:



Safari:

Vivaldi:



Brave:



The difference speaks for itself. Personally I can do without the ads, they don't even conform to my MF Dark settings.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

this same question came up on another forum I read and the person who responded noted:


It’s very similar to Brave. It uses the same Chromium codebase.

What I worry about is the comparative security:

12 Secure Browsers That Protect Your Privacy in 2023

The person that you are quoting (word for word) is *me*. I posted that to the Mac-L discussion list yesterday.

I'd like to request that you not repost stuff of mine without first asking permission (which I will usually give), and, if given permission, I'd like to request attribution. At the minimum, it's the polite thing to do.

Since I'm on this list, there is no reason to ever quote me here. If I want folks to hear what I have to say, I'll post it myself.

Thank you.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I have been using Brave for years now with no problems rendering any sites like PayPal or banks

I've had the same experience. In fact, I originally switched from Safari as my main browser to Brave because I was having to switch to Brave too often to get Web sites to render properly. Brave has supreme compatibility.

It seems that the reason Vivaldi was not rated highly by the author of that article was primarily because of the unique identifier allocated to Vivaldi users ... Brave does not require any personal information or subscription from you unless you enrol in their BAT program (optional).

I have half a dozen Web browsers installed on my main Mac. I like to keep up with all of them and see how they are progressing.

The Brave folks seem to be developing Brave at a breakneck pace. It's impressive. None of the other browsers are moving as quickly. Vivaldi comes the closest. They come out with a bunch of new features in fits and starts. It's almost as if they wait to see what Brave will be offering and then they rush to match it. The two browsers are extremely similar. They both use the same codebase. But Brave consistently rates better for security. Currently that's about all that separates them.

Vivaldi does now offer free e-mail. That's a nice feature, but if one wants free e-mail, there are more secure sources for it, such as Proton or Tutanota. Personally I'd rather not host my e-mail with the Vivaldi folks.

There are other browsers for the Mac that aren't quite as advanced as Brave and Vivaldi, but which specialize in certain areas, such as security or speed. If you want to try a browser that is optimized for speed, check out:

SlimJet (free)
https://www.slimjet.com/

Did you know that there are *hundreds* of Web browsers for the Macintosh?! Honest. There used to be a site that kept track of all of them:

http://web.archive.org/web/20160507005619/http://www.knutson.de/mac/www/browsers.html

 

[krs]

That aside, I have been using Brave for years now with no problems rendering any sites like PayPal or banks......

Just to clarify...
My comment re browsers not rendering websites properly wasn't just related to Brave but it applies more generally.
And I haven't had rendering issues with financial sites, at least nothing that was severe enough to stand out.
What I was getting at is that it seems the more a browser blocks certain functionality to more likely it is to not work as expected in some specific cases.
I think that is what happened when using Brave gave me the wrong information when I was checking if internet service was available at my location.

 

[TechnoBob]

The Brave folks seem to be developing Brave at a breakneck pace. It's impressive.

That's true: no sooner do I install the latest version than Brave's "Update" symbol re-starts its progression from green to orange to red--the latter meaning "update NOW". It seems I must update this browser at least every two weeks.

My problem is that Brave is so good at not tracking you, and at keeping sites from knowing it's you, that when I do the update I must then redo the logins to many sites that I prefer to stay logged in to. And because I have enabled 2FA where possible, the re-login process--even with LastPass helping me with userIDs and passwords--is a pain. (Authenticators, passcodes sent to the phone, etc.)

I suppose I should be happy at their ability to keep up with security issues (or is it to find bugs in their own software?), but updates so frequently are a little annoying. (2nd thought: AITA for complaining?)

 

[Rod]

I'm confused because I don't know what you are referring to at all.
What update symbol?
My version of Brave has always updated seamlessly in the background such that I am mostly unaware of it.

The sites, like this one, where I store the user name and password in the browser continue to keep me logged in.

For the others and those that use 2FA I use Enpass P/W Manager's browser extension coupled with ID confirmation via my iPhone where required.

Some sites, like PayPal recognise my device now rather than the browser and I have Passkeys for Google and a few others.

I cannot find a way to change updates to manual so your reference to a symbol that changes from green to orange to red is completely unknown to me and I've been using Brave as my default browser on all my Apple devices for several years. See;

How update works

Brave browser for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows. - brave/brave-browser

github.com

 

[Randy B. Singer]

...My version of Brave has always updated seamlessly in the background such that I am mostly unaware of it.

Mine too. Completely seamlessly.

I just checked all through Brave, and there is no sign of a way to manually update Brave.

...your reference to a symbol that changes from green to orange to red is completely unknown to me and I've been using Brave as my default browser on all my Apple devices for several years.

That's exactly my experience too.

 

[Rod]

Hmm, the article I attached states than when connected to the internet the app checks for updates and does so if available. I know that if I check the version at the bottom of the settings page it shows the version number then checks for updates but it never needs to because inevitably it already has.
I'm not so sure about the PC version but I assume we're talking about Macs here.

 

[JaneN]

Hey!
Hi Jane and welcome to the forum. Ta for the Vivaldi info and the link.

At the moment I am using Safari and all of my bookmarks are on there. Is it possible to transfer them over and if so then how?

To import bookmarks from Safari to Vivaldi on iOS, you'll need to import your bookmarks from Safari to Vivaldi on desktop first and then use the Sync feature to transfer them to iOS.

Vivaldi does now offer free e-mail.

The 'now' caught my attention, so I thought I'd clarify tings a bit.
We've hosted Vivaldi Webmail, an email service for years. It's a perk for active browser and community services users. You don't have to you use it as your main email, but having an extra address doesn't hurt.

More recently we introduced Vivaldi Mail, which is a mail client built into the browser. You can add almost any mail account of yours there for easy access. Together with Mail we also added Calendar and Feeds.