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Web compatibility reports

Shivan Kaul Sahib edited this page Dec 7, 2024 · 5 revisions

Web Compatibility Reports are voluntary user-submitted reports that Brave uses to enhance web compatibility with the Brave Shields feature. Because Brave Shields introduces a lot of cutting-edge Web privacy interventions, this sometimes breaks websites which are not used to being unable to call out to third-parties, fingerprint users, show cookie banners, or use privacy-harmful Web APIs.

User-submitted reports help Brave discover and fix these compatibility issues, promoting a better browsing experience for all Brave users.

Data Collected

The following is a list of data that Brave may collect from user-submitted Web Compatibility Reports. It's important to note that all data submission is voluntary, and privacy is a primary concern.

  • URL of the reported website: The address of the site with issues. To maximize privacy, any query parameters and fragments are omitted.
  • Release channel: This tells Brave which channel (Nightly/Beta/Release) of the browser the user was on.
  • App version: This tells Brave what version of the Brave app (e.g. 1.67) the user was on.
  • The Shields enabled status: Whether or not the user had Shields active.
  • Ad-block setting: The configured level of the ad-blocking setting.
  • Fingerprint blocking setting: The configured level of fingerprint blocking.
  • Enabled ad-block lists: This identifies which ad-block lists the user has activated. To maximize privacy, custom filter lists are NOT included.
  • User-configured languages: The languages that a user had configured in their browser settings.
  • Language farbling status: Whether or not the "language farbling" privacy-enhancing feature was enabled.
  • Brave VPN connection status (if any): If the user was connected to the Brave VPN at the time, if the user is a subscriber to Brave VPN.

In addition to this, the user may choose to provide the following optional details:

  • Problem details: A detailed description of the compatibility issue as the user experienced it.
  • Contact details: This can be useful if additional follow-up or clarification is necessary.
  • Screenshot of the viewport: It gives visual context to the problem faced by the user and can provide valuable clues for resolution.

User reports are deleted from Brave's servers after 30 days.

Sharing

Brave may share domains (never full URLs) and approximate timestamps from Web compatibility reports with third parties such as researchers and adblock filter list providers to assist Brave in fixing site issues and improve the adblocking ecosystem overall. If you would like to request this data, please send an email to webcompat@brave.com, and we will review your request for legitimate interest.

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