The Brave Browser, a privacy focused browser based off of the Chromium Browser will start blocking those pesky Cookie Consent Banners in an upcoming future release. Those annoying pop-up banners (and yes our sites have them too) are an unfortunate but required side effect of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations. Not only are these banners annoying but they could be invading your privacy too.
In some cases, however, these banners can serve as trackers themselves, as they engage in a privacy-breaching data exchange before the user even has a chance to opt out.
Brave will now proactively detect and block the cookie consent banners to deal with both of these issues, removing both a distraction and a potential privacy risk for users.
“New versions of Brave will hide—and, where possible, completely block—cookie consent notifications,” mentions Brave’s blog post.
This is something you will never see implemented in Google Inc. 159,19 -1,60 -1,00% Google Chrome. In fact extensions which currently hide the banners in Chrome will cease to work next summer. June 2023 is when Google is expected to block extensions not following their new Manifest V3 guidelines. One of the biggest changes to Manifest V3 is extensions are no longer allowed to modify data on a page before it is shown to the user. This new guideline has already reeked havoc for ad blocker extension developers. The developers of Brave have made their stance on this issue clear:
On a final note, Brave bashes Google’s push for technologies that remove control from users and give more experience-shaping power to websites, advertisers, data collectors, and consent-management systems.
Examples of such technologies are Manifest V3, WebBundles, and Privacy Sandbox, which Brave sees as obstacles rather than allies in its fight to bolster user privacy and deliver a frictionless web browsing experience.
