My experience using Brave Browser for a week, part 2

We continue this series dedicated to analyze the performance of Brave Browser, through my experience using the browser for 7 continuous days. This time we will talk about the privacy that Brave offers you as a user. Especially referring to two features: the use of DuckDuckGo, and its private browsing mode with and without Tor.

Why didn't I use DuckDuckGo during my experience with Brave?

We all understand that Brave Browser was specifically designed as a private browser. That is, one whose business is not focused on collecting its users' data. Instead, its goal is to offer them such great private browsing features that they can download and use it with confidence.

So it should have come as no surprise to me that the first (in)decent suggestion Brave Browser made to me when I downloaded it was to use DuckDuckGo as my go-to search engine. Although I already knew DuckDuckGo by hearsay, and I knew it was a search engine that collects absolutely none of your data, I must say I had never given it a chance until now.

And it seemed like the perfect duo, a browser that allows me to use the Internet without collecting my personal data, and a search engine that does not store any of my searches. Unlike Google, which even while I use Brave and not Chrome, still collects all my activity in its search engine.

I say "go on" because I finally decided not to use DuckDuckGo. As soon as Brave recommended the search engine, I decided to do several test searches, from the simplest things, like actors, to more complicated things, like historical data.

And while each time DuckDuckGo worked decently, it doesn't have the breadth of results, the organization, or the hierarchy that Google provides. This, along with the disadvantage of not having Google products at hand, made me decide to stay loyal to the big G, at least in this aspect.

How private is the browser?

But, speaking of privacy, there is still an important topic to discuss. We are referring to Brave Browser's private browsing mode, one of the most talked-about features of the browser. And one of those that, I must confess, caused me the most curiosity during my experience using Brave. Well, it allows you to use Tor, the program that masks your IP while surfing the Internet, directly from the browser.

This is a very important feature for those of us who live in countries where censorship appears from time to time on the Internet. Not to mention the advantage that in private browsing mode without Tor, your data is not collected either. Something that most browsers fail to do.

However, at the end of the day this feature of Brave was not practical for my day to day life. Well, the use of Tor within the browser made my Internet connection so slow, that I couldn't get past a couple of pages before giving up trying. A situation that did not improve in the following occasions that I tried the application.

Despite this, I am aware that the connection speed in Venezuela was probably the main cause of this problem.

And, despite this, the private browsing mode without Tor was satisfactory enough for me to consider that just for the ease of being able to navigate, knowing that there is no one collecting a single letter of what you write, it is worth downloading Brave Browser.

Brave Browser's private browsing mode is one of its most outstanding features.