Brave is a Chromium-based browser from Brave Software, co-founded in 2015 by Brendan Eich and Brian Bondy, whose Shields feature blocks trackers, cross-site cookies, and browser fingerprinting by default on every site. Brave's browser privacy policy states the company does not collect or retain users' browsing history, that some features process IP addresses to function, and that its product analytics system sends anonymous reports users can turn off. The company is private and discloses no ownership structure beyond a 2017 token offering that raised USD 35 million. In June 2020 Brave was found to be auto-completing typed cryptocurrency-exchange URLs to versions carrying Brave's affiliate referral code; its CEO apologised, called it a mistake, and the default was turned off.
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[2026-03-13] · COLLECTION
Brave's browser privacy policy, last updated 2026-03-13, states that the company does not collect or retain a user's browsing history, that some features require processing information such as the user's IP address in order to function, and that the browser's P3A product-analytics reports are anonymous, contain nothing that can be used to identify the user, and can be deactivated in settings.
Brave's about page states the company was co-founded in 2015 by Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla, and Brian Bondy, formerly of Khan Academy and Mozilla, and reports more than 100 million monthly active users. The page discloses no ownership structure, equity holders, or investors; the one financing event described is a 2017 initial coin offering that raised USD 35 million for the Basic Attention Token.
Brave's browser privacy policy describes no advertising, analytics, or data-partner sharing of browsing data; where features require third-party interaction, the policy describes IP addresses being stripped or proxied before requests leave Brave's infrastructure, with the stated principle of safeguarding data by not collecting it in the first place.
Brave CEO Brendan Eich publicly apologised for the June 2020 affiliate autocomplete, stating that a typed-in URL should go to the domain named without any additions, that the default was a mistake, and that the company corrects course quickly.
As explained by CoinDesk on 2020-06-08, Brave's address bar was found to auto-complete typed URLs for cryptocurrency sites including Binance, Coinbase, Ledger and Trezor to versions carrying Brave's affiliate referral code, sending referral attribution to those sites without the user having been referred; Brave subsequently changed the default for suggested-sites autocomplete to off across its release channels.
Brave's Shields documentation states that Shields blocks trackers and cross-site cookies on every page by default, and counters browser fingerprinting by slightly randomizing or occasionally removing the browser features trackers use to follow users -- protections described as on by default for every site with no extra downloads or configuration.
Brave's browser privacy policy describes proxying used to limit identifier exposure in the browser's own features: Safe Browsing requests on desktop are proxied to prevent IP exposure to Google, and IP addresses are removed before Brave News requests are forwarded through Brave's proxy.