Kevin C. Wong

macOS App - Brave (2019) [+]

Brave is a web browser based on Chrome adding privacy and ad-blocking features. Being based on Chrome means it's as good or bad as Chrome rendering web sites and running JavaScript -- which in my experience means it's as resource hungry as Chrome and at times has a hard time keeping up with multiple Twitch streams (half of it is probably that Twitch JS is not efficient).

Ad blocking seems ok and it does block a bunch of trackers. I didn't realize it uses Tor in private windows and I haven't tried that feature (though would conflict if I'm in my work network accessing internal sites, but you can turn it off globally). Being a third party browser I'd trust it more than Chrome to protect my privacy.

There is a Brave Rewards system where they will show you "privacy-respecting ads" which earns you Basic Attention Tokens that can be donated to creators via tipping (or it'll auto calculate and donate for you) or to buy digital goods at the Brave store. The ads are system notifications so could be annoying if you only want important activity reported via system notifications. It's an interesting way to do advertising.

Overall I'd say if you like using Chrome and want more advertising privacy then Brave is the way to go.