Brave Browser Privacy Policy

Read this document to understand how the Brave Browser uses data.

To learn how we use data to operate our websites, forums, and communications, visit the Website Privacy Policy. To learn how we use data for publishers and creators visit the Publisher Privacy Policy on the Basic Attention Token website.

In this policy “we”, “us”, etc. refers to Brave Software Inc, while “Brave” refers to the browser.

Security & updates

Brave automatically checks with us for updates. This ensures that you always have access to the latest security fixes. We count the number and type of these requests when we receive them to produce aggregate statistics. No particular person’s information can be identified in the statistics we produce.

You can also update to the latest version here.

Safe Browsing

The Brave Browser automatically uses Google Safe Browsing to help protect you against websites, downloads and extensions that are known to be unsafe (such as sites that are fraudulent or that host malware). On desktop, we use the Safe Browsing Update API which relies on storing URL hashes locally on your device. We proxy these requests through Brave’s servers to reduce the amount of information sent to Google (for example, we remove your IP address) to protect against Google profiling or tracking you when using Safe Browsing. On iOS, Apple proxies Google Safe Browsing through their own servers. For iOS users in mainland China, Apple may also use the Tencent Safe Browsing service. More details at https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/safari/. On Android, we use the SafetyNet Safe Browsing API which sends partial URL hashes directly to Google when a URL is determined to be potentially malicious by the list stored locally on your device, as per the Safe Browsing Update API.

If you prefer not to use Safe Browsing, just visit brave://settings/security to change your settings to “No protection (not recommended)”. On iOS, open “Brave Shields & Privacy” inside settings and disable “Block Dangerous Sites”. On Android, open “Brave Shields & privacy” inside settings and then set the Safe Browsing option to “No protection (not recommended)”.

Sync

If you switch on Sync then your bookmarks (and soon passwords and other data) will be saved in an encrypted file on a cloud storage service, to which you will have the only decryption key. The data¹ are entirely inaccessible to Brave and to the cloud storage provider. Learn how to switch on Sync here. (Note that only Brave version 0.59 and above have the Sync feature. You can update to the latest version here.)

Location

If you use Brave to visit a website that wants to determine your location, you will be asked whether you want it to be allowed to know where you are. If you click yes to this message, then the website will be sent an approximation of where you are based on your IP address. Your IP address will not be stored by Brave, but it may be stored by the website you have visited. See data processing detail.

Brave Rewards

If you enable Brave Rewards, we assign your Brave browser a “Rewards Payment ID,” which is used to account for Basic Attention Token (BAT) rewards you may earn for seeing Brave Private Ads. We will also ask you to select your country, which we will use to assign a country code to your Rewards Payment ID. The country code helps us ensure Ads are displayed to individuals depending on their country. We will also use the country code to help us prevent fraud. You can find your Rewards Payment ID by navigating to brave://rewards-internals.

If you want to withdraw any BAT from your Brave Rewards balance, add BAT to it, or send on-demand contributions to Brave Creators, you will need to link Brave Rewards to a custodial account using one of our custodial partners such as Uphold, Gemini, bitFlyer (Japan only), or ZebPay (India only). When you make an on-demand contribution to Brave Creators using BAT from your linked custodial account(s), the custodian can see and record the details of your contribution transactions (such as, but not limited to, the amount and the recipient). This is subject to the privacy policies of Uphold, Gemini, bitFlyer, or ZebPay. However, when using the Auto-Contribute feature to support Brave creators with BAT from your custodial account, neither Brave nor your custodian can tell which specific creators you’re contributing to.

Even with Brave Rewards enabled and a Rewards Payment ID assigned, we never collect your browsing history or similar information, and we can’t derive this information from your contributions to content creators or sites. We also cannot tell which specific Brave Private Ads you’ve seen or interacted with. When you link a custodial account to Brave Rewards, three things become associated with your Rewards Payment ID: a custodian ID, deposit address(es), and a country code. All three are assigned by the custodial partner. The deposit address allows us to make deposits to your custodial account, while the country code helps us prevent fraud and limit service to users in countries where Brave Rewards is supported. In addition, we also use IP addresses and Rewards Payment IDs associated with monthly BAT payments to safeguard against fraud. See Brave Rewards data processing table

We record these identifiers on servers located in the United States. We take a range of technical and organisational measures to safeguard personal data.

Ads

If you switch on Brave Rewards we automatically enable Brave Ads. This means you will receive ads in the form of notifications and in-browser sponsored content, and Basic Attention Tokens to reward you for viewing those ads. While the categories of ads that you see and when you see them are inferred from your browsing activity, the data are stored on your device and are inaccessible to us. We will receive anonymized confirmations for ads that you have viewed, but no data that identifies you or that can be linked to you as an individual leaves the Brave browser on your device. You can disable Ads by visiting Settings > Brave Rewards > Ads and turning off the Ads default.

In the cases where we collect high-level statistics relating to web activity data (e.g. what are the estimated amount of ads that can be served to different content categories that users encounter as they browse the web) we use proven privacy mechanisms like local differential privacy that guarantee that no information about individual users will ever be revealed to us. Read more about how we achieve this with Privacy Preserving Product Analytics and Private Advertising Analytics. To read more about Brave Ads and privacy have a look at our FAQ.

Brave Wallet

The Brave Wallet is a secure crypto wallet built directly into the Brave browser. You can buy, send, store, and swap thousands of assets (and NFTs) seamlessly on 100+ blockchain networks including Ethereum, Solana, Filecoin, and more. You can learn more about ‘crypto wallets’ and the Brave Wallet here

Brave does not track any of the actions you make in your wallet. We strive to put privacy first:

• Brave proxies and strips the IP address associated with access to the Brave Wallet.
• When you make a transaction using a third party that redirects you to their services, such as an on-ramp partner, they will capture your IP address and may conduct identity verification checks in order to meet obligations they have under sanctions and anti-money laundering laws. You should review the privacy notices and terms of service of those third parties.
• We use Decentralised Exchange Aggregators (DEX) such as 0x for swaps made on EVM compatible blockchains and Jupiter for swaps completed on the Solana blockchain. They will also process your wallet address, related transaction data and your IP address but will ONLY use this data to fulfil the transaction (including getting a quote).
• We will use anonymized and aggregated statistics from on-ramp partners that include regional volumes of transactions, including daily number of transactions by token/chain; daily $ volume of transactions by token/chain; monthly unique transactions by token/chain. We use this statistical data to understand at a high level which cryptocurrency assets are being used and on which platforms.

Brave News

Brave News is a private, ad-supported content news reader integrated into the Brave browser. It provides news content, Brave offers, display advertising, and promoted content. It is off by default.

When you turn ON Brave News, a range of content is presented by default. The default content is selected using Brave Search. You can at any time change the default content settings and choose what content you want appearing in your feed. You can also add feeds manually by subscribing directly to publishers’ content using publicly available RSS feeds.

To protect your privacy, Brave employs a combination of methods for delivering content that ensure your browser cannot be identified or tracked by Brave or any third party. Headlines are made available on a public CDN in text files, the same file for all users for each region. Some images from publishers and images in the Brave News user interface are processed to improve performance and ensure they display correctly in the Brave News user experience. Processed images are all delivered through a private and encrypted proxy method. The proxy removes and does not retain IP addresses before passing the encrypted request to the private content server, which then sends the encrypted reply back to the browser via the proxy. All other publisher images are collected directly from the publishers from your device. When you add RSS feeds manually, the text and images are collected directly from the publisher of the RSS feed and included in Brave News on the client. The feed of text and images from Brave and from your RSS feeds is temporarily stored on your device, and it is replaced upon starting or refreshing your Brave News session.

Display advertising and promoted content is delivered to all browsers within a given country that have turned on and enabled Brave News. Images from these are served by Brave using its private and encrypted proxy. If you also enable Brave Ads, advertising will be presented based on your interests, as inferred from your browsing behaviour and done on your device. Brave News remains private to you and anonymous.

Brave News will offer suggestions of sources you might like to follow. If you choose to follow a suggested source it will be added to your Following list; you can always unfollow a source via the Settings panel. The suggestions and your choices are determined on your browser and never leave your device. Your Brave News sessions are not logged or saved by Brave. This information is private to you and only you.

Brave’s source list, content aggregator and Suggestions service are open source and available to view via GitHub.

Please note: The RSS feed content you add is collected directly from the feed source and not proxied by Brave. The Brave browser fetches it without ever hitting Brave servers, and Brave never knows anything about your chosen RSS feeds.

It’s your choice. You can add, follow, unfollow, or hide content sources any time.

Brave Talk

Brave Talk is a private video and/or audio conference tool. What you say or type in the service is not logged or saved. Who you talk to, when, and how, is private to you. See data processing detail.

Please note that Brave uses the 8x8 communications platform, and software (API) capabilities of 8x8 (based on the Jitsi Open Source video conferencing software) to help deliver Brave Talk. 8x8 provides a service on behalf of Brave, and we remain responsible for Brave Talk.

What information does Brave Talk process?

We process the minimum information necessary to provide the Brave Talk service. This includes:

• Your IP address and the URL of the meeting that will be processed only to enable calls; they are not retained after a call ends.
• If you use the chat function, chats will be temporarily cached for the duration of the meeting.
• If you record a meeting that you host, the recording will be temporarily stored on the server for 24 hours to allow you to download it. Your name and email address that you choose to display will be processed and available during the meeting.

While communications are encrypted between the Brave browser and Brave Talk servers via transport layer encryption, they are not encrypted on the server during a call, unless you enable Video Bridge Encryption (VBE). Additional security options are available to you in the settings menu once you initiate a call. These include:

• Enable Lobby: This lets you protect your meeting by only allowing people to enter after being approved by a moderator.
• Add a passcode: This lets you restrict access to the meeting to people who have been provided the code.
• Enable Video Bridge Encryption (VBE): This is currently experimental. If you enable VBE, it will disable server side services such as recording, live streaming, and phone participation. Note that if you enable VBE but other participants do not, they won’t be able to see or hear you.

Please note that if you upgrade to the Brave Talk Premium plan, Brave will require an email address to initially create a premium account, and subsequently to manage your access to the account using anonymous credentials. We use the third-party payment provider Stripe to process payments for premium subscriptions. Stripe will process your email address, name, and payment card data for the purpose of managing your subscription payments only. Brave does not receive nor have access to your payment method details supplied to Stripe, and we cannot associate an account email address or payment details with your communications on Brave Talk.

Web3 calls are a special feature of Brave Talk. They use Web3 services as a gating mechanism to a call, so that only people who can prove ownership of a particular NFT can join a video call.

For each new Web3 Brave Talk call the service will look up NFT addresses that match users’ Brave Wallet addresses, via a service called Simplehash. The address lookup is handled via an anonymous proxy, which means Brave servers never record the addresses and have no visibility of members of a call.

Web3 calls use the same infrastructure as non-Web3 Brave Talk calls. However, the use of NFTs and POAPs (which are publicly available on blockchains) makes the members of Web3 calls anonymous but not private.

Learn more about Web3 Calls

To avoid scams: For the avoidance of phishing attacks, note that we at Brave will never contact Brave Browser users in a Brave Talk call.

We do not authenticate users or their associated avatar images. Accordingly, you should never share any confidential information with anyone on Brave Talk unless you are certain that you know who you are talking to. (Of course, this is a good practice regardless of whether you are using Brave Talk, or email, or any other form of communication.)

Brave Translate

Brave removes IP addresses associated with requests submitted to the translation service. Additionally, any text submitted is not retained after the request completes. We do this to protect your privacy.

Brave Firewall + VPN

You can subscribe to the Brave Firewall + VPN via the applicable iOS App Store and Google Play Store. The Firewall + VPN is powered by the Guardian and who also provide technical support to Brave. See data processing detail.

Web Discovery Project

The Web Discovery Project is intended to make Brave Search more relevant and useful for everyone. If you opt in, you’ll contribute some anonymous data about searches and web page visits made within the Brave Browser (including pages arrived at via some, but not all, other search engines). This data helps build the Brave Search independent index, and ensure we show relevant results to your search queries and support more relevant experiences with Brave products and services.

Collection is done in a privacy preserving fashion. By default, the Web Discovery Project discards search queries that are too long or suspicious looking (e.g. those that include phone numbers). It also discards odd URLs (e.g. those containing hashes), URLs of pages with a no-index flag, and pages that are not public or require any sort of authentication.

The system is designed so that no data received can be linked back to individuals or their devices. For a URL to be sent it needs to be visited independently by a large number of people. All data received is unlinkable, making it impossible to build profiles or sessions of Web Discovery Project contributors.

Read a full description of the Web Discovery Project methodology.

How we improve Brave

Diagnostic reports

When Brave crashes or freezes, it creates a report that can be sent to us to help us diagnose and fix whatever caused the problem. This report contains technical information about your computer system and the event causing the problem. The data can’t be used to identify you.

We use a service called Backtrace.io to store the reports. You can choose whether to send us these reports. Even if you have chosen to send reports in the past, you can turn off future reports in settings.

Privacy Preserving Product Analytics

The Browser sends us anonymous reports to alert us to product problems and necessary improvements. None of the information it reports harms your privacy. The report only describes general use of the Browser, such as a general range of how many extensions are installed, a general range of how many tabs are open, and whether features like Shields, Rewards, and Ads are switched on. See the full list of questions here. These reports are stripped of metadata, and aggregated with measurements reported by many other instances of Brave. The data are not personal, and cannot be combined to identify you. You can deactivate Privacy-Preserving Product Analytics in Settings.

Brave Leo

The AI Chat feature provides summaries of the web page you are browsing and includes a chat interface that allows you to submit questions and receive responses about the content of that page. The accuracy of summaries is not guaranteed and may include inaccurate, misleading and false information. You should not submit sensitive or private information and should exercise caution with any text related to health, finance or personal safety and similar cases.

Brave’s AI Chat feature is currently powered by a self-hosted implementation of Llama-2. The questions you ask will be transmitted to Brave. The AI Chat feature does not collect nor otherwise process identifiers such as an IP Address that can be linked to you.

The legal basis relied on to process any personal data submitted is that it is necessary for the legitimate interests of Brave and end users. Please note any personal data submitted is not retained by Brave.

Your feedback

By submitting a web compatibility report, you have the option to include certain details to assist us in analyzing and addressing compatibility issues effectively. These details may include your contact information (which is optional), language settings, the address of the website experiencing compatibility concerns, your browser version number, Shields settings, and VPN status. It is important to note that providing this information is entirely voluntary. Submitted data will be deleted from Brave servers after 30 days.

Any personally identifiable information (PII) you provide, such as your contact details, will be handled with strict confidentiality. We do not sell, trade, or transfer your information to any third parties.

We collect this data solely for the purpose of improving our services, enhancing your browsing experience, and resolving compatibility issues.

If you write feedback for Brave, we will use this to improve the product. See data processing detail.

Nightly, Dev, and Beta browser versions

Nightly, Dev, and Beta versions of the Brave Browser are experimental previews of new Brave Browser versions. They allow us to test new features so that we can find and fix errors before releasing a new version of the Brave Browser. These test versions of the Browser may automatically send crash reports to Brave so that we can identify and fix problems. A crash report can contain personal information. See data processing details.

How to switch this feature off. You can switch off “Automatically send usage statistics and crash reports to Brave Software” in settings.

Tip: you can quickly access settings by copying brave://settings into your address bar.

These incomplete versions of Brave represent unfinished and untested work on future versions of Brave, and their incomplete behaviour may not be adequately described by this policy. More information about the safety & reliability of pre-release versions of Brave can be found in our development documentation.

Help with privacy settings in Brave

You can find guides on how to change privacy settings in Brave in the Help Center..

Contacting Brave about your privacy

We are always interested in hearing and responding to questions and concerns at twitter.com/brave and at github.com/brave. More in-depth conversations can be had at community.brave.com.

We are represented in Europe by Brave Software Europe Ltd (based in the UK). You can contact our data protection officer and the rest of our privacy team at privacy@brave.com. However, from the 1st January 2021, given the UK’s exit from the EU, Brave has appointed an EU nominated representative and which you may contact if you would prefer not to contact Brave directly:

Brave EU Nominated Representative Care of Castlebridge Unit 7, 12 Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1 Ireland

brave@gdprnomrep.eu

You can ask to know what information we have about you, update incorrect information, delete it, object to our use of it, or get a copy of it. If you’re in the European Union, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority (though everyone should have this right).

We’ll update this policy whenever we make material changes to our practices, and we’ll announce it to let you know. We hope you’ll find any changes agreeable, but if you’re not comfortable with changes to the info we collect or how we use it, we understand your choice to stop using Brave. 

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