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Brave appears to install VPN Services without user consent (www.ghacks.net)

submitted 1 year ago by GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

81 comments fedilink hide all child comments

If you have the Brave Browser installed on your Windows devices, then you may also have Brave VPN services installed on the machine. Brave installs these services without user consent on Windows devices.

Brave Firewall + VPN is an extra service that Brave users may subscribe to for a monthly fee. Launched in mid-2022, it is a cooperation between Brave Software, maker of Brave Browser, and Guardian, the company that operates the VPN and the firewall solution. The firewall and VPN solution is available for $9.99 per month.

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[–] GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Again, it's not true, so you don't need to keep acting like it's the case. You do not need root to create systemd entries for a single user. Systemd is pretty much just symlinks all the way down. You can test this yourself, so I don't know why you're saying it's not possible when me and many others in this thread have told you that you were incorrect in the first place.

[–] hottari@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I was correct you need root to create systemd-wide systemd service that will run on boot , user systemd files can't. What they can do, is run after login. Which has more or less the same effect for a single-user setup. And I did admit I was partially wrong.

[–] GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This was never about runlevel 0 or 1 programs. This was always about whether or not a user can use systemd without root. Why would Brave need to start a VPN service at an init runlevel (before most networking services)? It would make more sense to start at login.

[–] hottari@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You entirely misunderstood my argument(s). The title says "Brave appears to install VPN Services without user consent". My comment was an exploration of this using Linux's tools (systemctl). But nevertheless, creating a VPN network requires elevated permissions.

[–] GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Then why did you say "you don't know what you're talking about" and are just now bringing up systemctl? Moving goalposts maybe?