These systems still only operate once you’ve opted into them, meaning if you just never enable brave ads or disable it, these systems won’t reach you or have any of these possible problems. Personally I don’t use these browsers without disabling everything (ads, daily usage ping, ads on new tab page, etc) and once you’ve done that it is still a pretty great option for a privacy browser especially when considering its better web compatibility compared to Firefox which still lags behind.

**I am not saying Firefox or brave is definitely better than one or the other, I do not want to strike the hornets nest. **

IMO, if you disable all the aforementioned features, it is still good as a privacy focused browser. And especially if you disable things like ads and daily usage ping, you won’t be contributing anything to brave devs at all and can use it just as a browser without supporting or enabling the words of their founder.

Funny enough they actually just recently ended their partnership with flock, possibly hinting that they’re looking to compete with them.