You can pay via Crypto/bank transfer and probably with cash soon.
The Discord thing is a valid point.
I don’t agree on the trust part with you. EVERY SOFTWARE we use boils down to trust. Because let’s be honest, we all don’t read the source code. (most of the time)
And finally there are downsides to such messages: Where do they stop? If someone searches for how to suicide, they should be getting relevant information for their query. Overall, I thought that if you find all the aforementioned things bad, you might like this one. From a liberal perspective, this is great.
From the linked source (2023), which I assume you can understand as a German speaker:
- Fazit
Insgesamt hinterlässt Brave einen durchwachsenen Eindruck. Die Voreinstellungen des Browsers sind nicht ideal. […]
Unklar bleibt, ob man zur A/B-Testgruppe gehört und welche Daten dabei an die Domain »variations.brave.com« fließen. Ebenfalls fragwürdig ist die Abfrage von Affiliate-Domains über die Domain »laptop-updates.brave.com«.
Passt man die Voreinstellungen an und installiert keine weiteren Add-ons, hat man einen Chromium-Ableger, der offenbar keine Verbindungen zu Google initiiert, aber dennoch unnötige Verbindungen beim Start aufbaut. So ganz passt die Außendarstellung bzw. das Versprechen zum Schutz der Privatsphäre nicht zum tatsächlichen Verhalten in der Praxis.
Can you link to where he says he uses Brave? Maybe I’m wrong here, but this seems sceptical.
More quotes:
(I really don’t want to be toxic, but at least the Mike Kuketz talk is you spreading misinformation)
BTW, another argument is: Don’t use Chromium-based browsers, browser engine diversity is important for an open web.
GPT-4 is for Ultimate users ($25/month). The “weaker” models like GPT-3.5 will be rolled out for Pro users($10/month) in the next few weeks.
PS: FastGPT+ Summarizer exist as well, but this was not what I was talking about. Those are both somewhat limited AI tools, the GPT thing is the full blown access
Disclaimer: Kagi user here.
Searches are not pay-per-use anymore. But you still have to be logged in to search. The premise is, that they don’t store your searches. It is not their business model. You are the paying customer, not the ad firms. This is, ultimately, not verifiable. It comes down to some sort of trust. And I do trust in them. The developers are actually great guys, there is a discord where they answer immediately, and a discourse forum where you can submit bugs/features, etc.
They take a strong stance on freedom. They refused to implement a suicide prevention message, as they felt, that it wasbnot the job of the search engine to patronize the user.
There is such a thing as a ‘session link’. You can get it from you account. With this, I don’t think cookies are necesary. But the link expires so you have to do it probably every few days anew.
The thing is: I want to aupport them. They have cool features (up/downranking websites, GPT-4 access over their proxy, etc.) Is it better than self-hosting: no. But I don’t wanna self-host. And search is something that costs. So any service that does not live off donations or some sort of payment, is suspicious.
I hope I explained some of my reasons. Please debunk me and make me cancel my subscription there if I am in the wrong. Im not a shill and actually interested in your concerns :)
Btw, here is a detailed, technical review. It is in German, but with transtae and all the code, it should be understandable.
TLDR: It’s good.
To add on that: There is (an actively developed NewPipe fork)[https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe] that extends the functionality with SponsorBlock. LibreTube (another FLOSS app) also has this, Piped support and even DeArrow Support (vs cringe thumbnails.)
Assuming there are 2.5 billion active android devices out there, aand there are 3.2 million LineageOs devices, which is definetively a lower bound, as many users deactivate telemetry or use another ROM, this equals ~0.1% of all Android phones.
If you look at the country stats, that percentage is even higher for the US.
And you are missing another point alltogether: Percentages are deceiving when it comes to sufh immense numbers like # of Android users. 0.00x% can (and do!) still form a meaningful, thriving, somewhat large community.
As to your other points: I was wrong apparently. But I was explicitly asking for dissent. You were just rude.
Can you
- Load a Custom ROM (along the likes of LineageOS, GrapheneOS, …) on your iPhone
- use alternative app stores that are not a walled garden (like F-Droid)
- sideload apps alltogether without an App Store ?
(If there are possibilities, then please tell me and I will reevaluate my opinion. This is not meant as flame, rather as criticism 🤨 .)
God, this is what I love about Lemmy: Someome posts a chart and immediately the question for raw data arises. And the order: First .ods, the free spreasheet format, then .csv with the mindset of “Fine, I’ll import the raw csv myself”, and as anlast resort the hated .xlsx proprietary format. Never change, and use .od_
I just love what has become of this thread:
- Think it’s a nice post
- Look for Google/Kagi, but they’re missing
- People ask for sources, realize OP has chart from VERY dodgy conspiracy website
- People start accusing Kagi Support of lying to their face, Screenshota of convo attached
- Other users don’t think its a lie, rather a misunderstanding
- Insults start
- ?
FIngerprinting is not super easy. E.g. you might have a ‘unique’ fingerprint with FF but if it changes every time, than I would consider it actually a privacy feature. Did you have the same addons installed on BRave and FF while testing (as Addons play a part in Fingerprinting)? And finally: A lot of fingerprinting techniques can be blocked before they even start (no JS, …). I feel like your opinion is rather one-sided.
As to why FF> Brave: Basically the Chromium argument. Diverse engines are better for the health of the web.
I respect the push to use a non-chromium browser, but personally I rely too much on browser tab groups to use anything Firefox based.
Out of interest, are your needs not covered by Simple Tab Groups or Tree Style Tab? Both are monitored by Mozilla as “Recommended Extensions”.
To anyone wondering about the whole “homophobe thing”, here is a (hopefully neutral? If you have different sources please share them as well!) wiki link to the drama.
For further explanation of any point, please hit me up :)
- It is Chromium based
- It has used dubious methods in the past (replacing links with affiliate links, the whole ad/crypto thing, …)
- Brave’s business model relies on ads (I think)
- [This is a weak point, but at least in the privacy community, Brave isn’t super popular. It feels more geared towards the “hyped crypto early adopters”. [1] It might be “fine” for someone switching from Chrome (which is always a good thing) but going all the way would be a modded Firefox.]
TL;DR For most provacy concious Brave users, Brave is a step in their journey towards more privacy, and not the final destination.
[1] The “dumb AF tech youtubers” you mentioned in another post are typically the Brave hype crowd. This is not meant to discredit Brave; it’s just that a share of their users are this way.
I am aware of that possibility, but a truly FOSS MOBA would be amazing. Custom balancing on different servers, different queues, etc.