Recently, Brave Software released an updated stable version of its web browser with numerous enhancements and AI functionalities. One notable modification is the way VPN services are added to Windows PCs.
In the previous method, Brave would automatically install VPN services for all Windows users, even if the majority did not utilize them. Consequently, users found VPN services installed on their devices without their explicit consent or any intention to use them.
Upon receiving feedback, Brave Software acknowledged that VPN services had indeed been installed on Windows machines but were set to manual startup mode, rendering them inactive until users manually activated them. Moreover, these services did not transmit any data to Brave Software.
To resolve this issue, Brave Software decided to alter their approach. With the release of Brave 1.64 half a year later, the latest version no longer automatically integrates VPN services on Windows machines.
As per the changelog, Brave clarifies: “Corrected Brave VPN to refrain from installing VPN services until the VPN is purchased or enabled.”
On testing this adjustment on two systems, it was verified that the VPN services, specifically Brave VPN Service and Brave VPN Wireguard Service, were not auto-installed post updating to Brave 1.64.
In the future, these VPN services will only be added if a user buys the VPN from Brave Software or switches it on on their device. Furthermore, if the VPN remains inactive, these services will be uninstalled from the system.
Brave Software has formally documented this revision and updated behavior on GitHub, ensuring that if users have not subscribed to a VPN or activated the VPN in the browser settings, these services will be uninstalled.
Other Enhancements in Brave 1.64
In addition, Brave 1.64 introduces several intriguing improvements. This encompasses a novel feature named “bring all tabs to this window,” enabling users to combine tabs from different windows into the active one.
Moreover, the integrated AI component, Brave Leo, now offers a fresh text right-click context menu. This functionality empowers users to choose text on a webpage, access Brave AI Tools, and pick from a range of options like generating a text summary or utilizing rewrite features backed by the language model integration.
Furthermore, two significant security and privacy enhancements have been highlighted by Brave Software. This includes enhancing Tor functionality to align with the Tor browser in terms of stream isolation for third-party resources. The other enhancement relates to improving the storage partitioning function of Chromium to ensure synchronization with Brave’s temporary storage implementation.
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