• Brave appears to install VPN Services without user consent

    Home » Forums » AskWoody support » Questions: Browsers and desktop software » Other browsers » Brave appears to install VPN Services without user consent

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    b
    AskWoody_MVP
    October 18, 2023 at 7:26 am #2595130

    If you have the Brave Browser installed on your Windows devices, then you may also have Brave VPN services installed on the machine. Brave installs these services without user consent on Windows devices.

    Brave Firewall + VPN is an extra service that Brave users may subscribe to for a monthly fee. Launched in mid-2022, it is a cooperation between Brave Software, maker of Brave Browser, and Guardian, the company that operates the VPN and the firewall solution. The firewall and VPN solution is available for $9.99 per month.

    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/10/18/brave-is-installing-vpn-services-without-user-consent/

    Brave has become Malware

    1 user thanked author for this post.
    NaNoNyMouse
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    • Doc Fuddled
      Guest
      October 22, 2023 at 11:38 am #2596151

      Not long ago I first learned of this issue. I checked my system and learned it was true. Brave had “slipped” VPN services into my system.

      I immediately uninstalled Brave and went to LibreWolf. Some may consider this an overreaction, but I will not entertain any program that violates my trust with underhanded tactics such as this. And I can only imagine that if everyone used such a zero tolerance policy, perhaps developers would act more honorably and show more respect for its customers.

      1 user thanked author for this post.
      NaNoNyMouse
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    • Alex5723
      AskWoody Plus
      October 22, 2023 at 12:16 pm #2596174

      Brave is working on a fix

      1 user thanked author for this post.
      TechTango
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    • Cybertooth
      AskWoody Plus
      October 22, 2023 at 5:46 pm #2596251

      From that Brave Community discussion:

      However disabling services is notreally for the faint of heart, and being consumer focused, [they] shouldn’t be pushing bloat at you, then saying well i you don’t want it…go learn about task manager and services starting and you can “easily” disable what you don’t want. How about giving us an option TO allow something BEFORE it’s installed.

      Sound familiar, anyone? 🙂

       

      Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
      Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

      1 user thanked author for this post.
      cyberSAR
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    • cyberSAR
      AskWoody Plus
      October 22, 2023 at 5:49 pm #2596252

      How about giving us an option TO allow something BEFORE it’s installed.

      YES!

      Reply | Quote
      • PKCano
        Manager
        October 22, 2023 at 5:54 pm #2596253

        Hello, Windows.
        Hello, Edge.
        Sounds REAL familiar!

        3 users thanked author for this post.
        satrow, Cybertooth, cyberSAR
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        • b
          AskWoody_MVP
          October 23, 2023 at 8:13 am #2596373
          PKCano wrote:

          Hello, Windows.
          Hello, Edge.
          Sounds REAL familiar!

          What subscription services does Microsoft install without asking?

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          • PKCano
            Manager
            October 23, 2023 at 8:57 am #2596380

            How about giving us an option TO allow something BEFORE it’s installed.

            “something” is not necessarily a subscription. Quote does not say “subscription.”

            Reply | Quote
    • Alex5723
      AskWoody Plus
      October 22, 2023 at 11:53 pm #2596284
      PKCano wrote:

      Hello, Windows.
      Hello, Edge.
      Sounds REAL familiar!

      Microsoft Edge may be using your browsing history to inform Bing Chat AI

      ..As well as adding AI to Windows 11 with Copilot, Microsoft has also brought a generous dose of it to its Edge browser courtesy of Bing Chat. What users of this feature may not be aware of is that their browsing data is being used to personalize Copilot, meaning that a huge amount of potentially revealing information is being shared with the artificial intelligence tool…

      1 user thanked author for this post.
      Cybertooth
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      • b
        AskWoody_MVP
        October 23, 2023 at 6:28 am #2596361
        Alex5723 wrote:

        What users of this feature may not be aware of is that their browsing data is being used to personalize Copilot,

        Because they missed the big, bold box where they clicked, “Confirm …”?

        consent is asked for before this setting is enabled,

        Data and consent used by Bing Chat in Edge sidebar

        Microsoft Edge determines what data to send to Bing Chat based on the user’s query and their consent to share data with Microsoft. For questions that don’t need browsing context, such as “Help me plan a trip to Cannon Beach”, Microsoft Edge shares the URL, page title, user’s query, and previous conversation history to help Bing Chat answer their query effectively.

        For questions that need browsing context, [e.g. when the user asks Bing Chat to summarize a large page of text], Microsoft Edge will seek permission from the user to access page information. When the user gives permission to share page information, Microsoft Edge will send the full browsing context in addition to the users’ query and previous conversation history to Bing Chat to help generate a meaningful response.

        Here’s an example of what the permission screen looks like to gain access to the browsing context:

        Edge chat page consent

        The user can modify this permission anytime by going to Microsoft Edge > Settings > Sidebar > App and notification settings > App specific settings > Bing Chat and then turning on or off the Allow access to any webpage or PDF toggle.

        Bing Chat in Microsoft Edge sidebar

        Alex5723 wrote:

        Microsoft Edge may be using your browsing history to inform Bing Chat AI

        browsing history is NOT accessed.

        Reply | Quote
    • Cybertooth
      AskWoody Plus
      October 23, 2023 at 11:06 am #2596415
      b wrote:

      consent is asked for before this setting is enabled

      Users of Brave similarly need to take positive action for the browser’s VPN to be enabled:

      Brave-VPN

      Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
      Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

      Reply | Quote
    • Casey S
      AskWoody Plus
      October 23, 2023 at 11:23 pm #2596558

      Just peeked in

      • Control Panel > Programs and Features,
      • Settings > App
      • Services.msc

      … and all I have is Brave, no additional Brave-branded VPN software.  Was this “fixed”?  Brave says it’s up-to-date:

      Brave is up to date
      Version 1.59.120 Chromium: 118.0.5993.88 (Official Build) (64-bit)
      Reply | Quote
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