[Feature-Request]:- To integrate Privacy Redirect Extension Code into Brave

[m77e4t]

Brave Browser can integrate/imbed Privacy redirect extension (code) into the browser. The feature will redirect to front-ends of various sites. Eg, Youtube to invidious.kavin.rocks site.

https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/privacy-redirect/pmcmeagblkinmogikoikkdjiligflglb

1.) By default, the feature will be strictly off. 2.) Users can opt-in to the feature by a simple On/Off toggle. 3.) If users opt-in, the by default it will select a front-end site from the list. The default selected site will be chosen based on uptime, as a lot of them go down from time to time. Eg, kavin(dot)rocks affiliated instance are known to be available overall. 4.) The settings for this feature will be placed in brave://settings/socialBlocking

An example of how redirection will happen for opt-in users. 1.) User visits a site which has a youtube link for a video. 2.) The user clicks on the link to watch the video on youtube. 3.) But, instead of visiting youtube site from browser, he visits invidious.kavin.rocks and watches the video as he normally would do on youtube. 4.) Eg:- Youtube Link for video made by Brave https://youtu.be/fiXaHv_9rmQ, and it's front-ends https://invidious.kavin.rocks/watch?v=fiXaHv_9rmQ or https://yewtu.be/watch?v=fiXaHv_9rmQ

Examples of front-ends:- 1.) Youtube:- invidious.kavin.rocks, yewtu.be. Main site:-invidio.us which aggregates all instances 2.) Twitter:- nitter.kavin.rocks, nitter.net etc 3.) Instagram:- biblogram.art 4.) Reddit:- teddit,net, libredd.it etc 5.) Medium:- scribe.rip 6.) Etc

Full Lists:- https://github.com/digitalblossom/alternative-frontends https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends

Later on, it can also be integrated into android brave browser. Currently, this extension cannot be used on android, as brave does not support any extensions (like kiwi). In Firefox Stable, 10 extensions are available by default (eg, UBO) but does not include this particular one. A user can integrate it on Firefox Nightly, but it has its own tedious process to do it.

A similar extension but not focused on privacy redirection feature:- https://github.com/einaregilsson/Redirector

Images-

[pes10k]

Hi @m77e4t. Thank you for the issue! I think this is a very neat idea. I think it is unlikely that we'd integrate it into Brave, but we would like to (someday) get extensions working on Android.

For the redirection extension you mentioned though, Brave already ships with something very similar. You may be interested in https://brave.com/privacy-updates/11-debouncing/ if you haven't already seen it.

[m77e4t]

1.) The debouncing privacy feature is pretty neat/good and helped me from connecting to tracking domains like google(dot)ads(dot)manager(dot)com etc. Still, the debouncing feature and what this extension does is quite different.

Before for e.g., on brave.com, at bottom of page, social media accounts related to brave are listed. If I needed to visit brave Twitter account from brave website, I used copy the URL, paste in on URL bar and then change the domain from https://twitter.com/brave to https://nitter.kavin.rocks/brave. But, with this extension, it made the process easy by automatically redirecting me after clicking on the link.

2.) Also, it is not only a redirector, but also embeds privacy front-ends. Eg, The embedded video should be from Youtube, but it is changed to invidious instance/proxy https://blog.coingecko.com/coingecko-collaborates-with-nakamotojedi/. https://coinmarketcap.com/ Top left corner has invidious embedded videos instead of youtube. (it may take a few seconds to properly load) So, instead of blocking embedded posts via brave://settings/socialBlocking we can also change the embedded post itself to privacy-respecting ones.

3.) Most normal/regular users do not know that- a.) We can block ads (googles ads) and there are various methods to do it. b.) Desktop browsers have extension feature which can change their browser functions. c.) And by these extensions (UBO, Adguard) a user can easily block ads/trackers.

Brave made it easy for normal/regular users by having the ad/tracker blocking function in-built into the browser. I believe integrating such a feature (privacy redirection) into the browser will have the same effect, by giving more privacy easily to normal/regular users at arm's reach.

4.) Could you go again with pros and cons of this feature and see if the benefits of integrating it outweighs not having it?

[m77e4t]

Just wanted to give an update that there is a new fork of privacy redirect. The devs have added some extra cool stuff in it like redirection of medium, tiktok, spotify etc, https://github.com/libredirect/libredirect. It also has cookie storage so that the same preferences will be enabled on different instances of the same product.

[Peacock365]

@pes10k

I think it is unlikely that we'd integrate it into Brave, but we would like to (someday) get extensions working on Android.

How likely is that to happen? Every single time I hear about you planning to bring extension support to Android, and apparently not being able to do it, I am left thinking about the Kiwi browser project that is developed by literally one guy, who has managed to update to Chromium 101, and yet has extension support up and running. I mean, Brave is far bigger than one guy, is it not? You should have the dev capacity to bring extension support to Android.

If I had to make a guess, I'd say extension compatibility (and extension sync) on Android is the nr.1 non-crypto feature people request all the time yet nothing moves, even though one guy managed to do it. It is a very disheartening sight to behold to say the least. I am sure you bringing extension support to Android would help adoption. I don't know about your other priorities but this should be high priority most likely.

[bsclifton]

Thanks for the feedback @Peacock365. We have a specific patching strategy which lets us upgrade Chromium with all of our changes in a fairly agile manner with a limited number of employees: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/Patching-Chromium

The team has already put in the effort to get extensions working but made a decision not to integrate yet, as doing this cleanly is not easy and will take more effort than we're ready to spend at the moment

[m77e4t]

Brave just added similar feature on their iOS browser (likely from iOS team, instead of privacy team). https://nitter.kavin.rocks/brave/status/1552063664920100864#m

@anthonypkeane I am tagging you since on the twitter post, it was said you will look into it, if it can be ported to android. (https://nitter.kavin.rocks/buccifreestyle/status/1552067973967405056#m)

I am attaching some screenshots from the newer libredirect extension to show similarity between this new iOS feature and my feature request. Reddit as shown in your videos can also be redirected to (instead to*) libreddit and teddit just like old.reddit.com, improving user privacy by tenfold.

[distbit0]

https://community.brave.com/t/please-add-auto-redirect-from-youtube-links-to-invidious-on-brave-android/433743

@m77e4t @Peacock365 @anthonypkeane I made this issue on the brave forum to request that auto redirects are added to brave android for invidious etc. , in addition to iOS. Please upvote/share this forum post so that it is noticed and hopefully implemented :)

[lukemulks]

+1 from Twitter

https://twitter.com/ChaseArmitage3/status/1573181824016482304?t=qGLvbG6_TqJA5XjpkmiQCQ&s=19

+1 from me; love the idea of a buffer zone.

[pes10k]

We'd discussed this internally and I don't think this is something we will or should ship in Brave by default. Its a useful feature, but its also pretty advanced level; it benefits user privacy (for obvious reasons) but also may put users at risk (since we expect these proxy sites do not have the same rigor of security teams as the sites that are being proxied). So i think its a great experts feature (and so perfect for an extension), but I don't think its something we'll include in Brave.

One exception though (and this is already on the iOS browser), that we have an option to automatically redirect requests to sites that have their own, alternate views (for example. reddit.com -> old.reddit.com, or npr.org -> text.npr.org). In these cases, since its the same organization managing both versions of the sites, we didn't feel like we were increasing any security risk for users.

One last point, is that we're considering (though dont have any immediate implementation plans) allowing users to add their own custom redirects (thats for iOS but we're considering it generally). Then expert users could effectively opt-into the redirection activity, without us providing less-expert users a footgun. Hopefully more to announce soon

[distbit0]

Custom redirects would be amazing!! @pes10k

Can not wait.

[lukemulks]

We received a +1 for some form of optionality regarding this extension from a loyal lead user / community member via Twitter who often makes solid suggestions and provides quality FYIs on a regular basis (over the past couple/few years).

Direct link: https://twitter.com/vonbrucken/status/1629687835488927744?t=6YZO5H-y92-a4hc92aV4Jw&s=19

After reviewing and refreshing on the discussion above, it sounds like the ideal route would be for Brave staff and Community to communicate that Brave offers support for the specific chrome extension (and generally all chrome extensions).

That said, it also appears that we are tackling the root of the concern in our own way that's more native to the core privacy protection in Brave (correct me if I am overstating, or if there's a more preferred way of putting it @pes10k @bsclifton @anthonypkeane et al).

Regardless, capturing suggestion to record here to signal organic anecdotal interest surfaced via Twitter/Community/lead user.

[ghost]

We'd discussed this internally and I don't think this is something we will or should ship in Brave by default. Its a useful feature, but its also pretty advanced level; it benefits user privacy (for obvious reasons) but also may put users at risk (since we expect these proxy sites do not have the same rigor of security teams as the sites that are being proxied). So i think its a great experts feature (and so perfect for an extension), but I don't think its something we'll include in Brave.

One exception though (and this is already on the iOS browser), that we have an option to automatically redirect requests to sites that have their own, alternate views (for example. reddit.com -> old.reddit.com, or npr.org -> text.npr.org). In these cases, since its the same organization managing both versions of the sites, we didn't feel like we were increasing any security risk for users.

One last point, is that we're considering (though dont have any immediate implementation plans) allowing users to add their own custom redirects (thats for iOS but we're considering it generally). Then expert users could effectively opt-into the redirection activity, without us providing less-expert users a footgun. Hopefully more to announce soon

For the redirect can you make like for the adblock ? putting an url and he download / update it from there.

Like that we can exactly like for ads like, have major trustworthy list emerge and be used (like OISD or Fanboy's), and who know when they are enough known be added by default (but not enabled) by brave's team.