App of the Week: Brave browser

By Sylvia Lorico

Browse the internet safely and securely with the Brave browser. Available for Android and iOS, this app lets users browse the internet with built-in security protection and ad blocking features unavailable on most mobile browsers.

In most ways, Brave looks and functions identically to Google Chrome. A lion icon at the top of their browser lets users control the app’s added security settings for each website they visit.

Users can toggle security features including a blocker for ads and tracking, HTTPS browsing and fingerprinting security on and off. Additionally, they can choose to block scripts, third-party cookies from websites and pop-ups.

HTTPS stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. It shares data between your browser and the website you are connected to. The “S” in the acronym means that communications between your browser and a particular website are encrypted. Brave ensures that HTTPS is active on websites that have the capability to use it.

To further limit tracking, users can set the app’s default search engine to DuckDuckGo, which does not save personal information like Google does. Chrome does not have the ability to use DuckDuckGo by default on Android.

Brave also optimizes battery and data usage. Using it reduces page loading times by cutting out the time needed to load ads, which the browser blocks. Reducing what one has to load also lowers battery and data consumption.