Brave
What the default settings do
Brave is unusual among mainstream browsers in that its headline privacy feature, Shields, is already on and already aggressive by default. Standard fingerprinting protection randomizes canvas, WebGL, audio, and hardware-concurrency values for cross-site requests out of the box, and known trackers, ads, and cryptominers are blocked without any setup, a meaningfully stronger starting point than Chrome, Edge, or Firefox.
Because of that, the useful work in a Brave privacy guide is not re-explaining Shields, it is reviewing the surfaces specific to Brave itself: the Rewards and Ads program, sponsored New Tab images, Brave News, the telemetry Brave collects about browser usage, the Leo AI assistant, and the Web3/wallet features built into a browser most people picked specifically to avoid this kind of thing. None of it is secretive, Brave documents all of it, but it’s easy to leave on without noticing since it arrived bundled during setup or a later update.
A reasonable privacy baseline
Most of these settings are found in Settings (brave://settings) from the Brave menu; a few live on the New Tab page itself.
Shields
Fingerprinting protection → Standard (default) or Strict
Standard mode, Brave's default, randomizes fingerprinting values for third-party requests while allowing first-party fingerprinting so more sites work correctly. Strict mode extends randomization to first-party requests too, more thorough but more likely to break banking sites, CAPTCHAs, and canvas-heavy web apps. Standard is reasonable for most people; this is the one Shields setting worth a second look, everything else in Shields is already doing its job.
New Tab Page
New Tab Page → Customize → Sponsored Images → Off
Sponsored background images appear by default in the New Tab rotation, roughly every fourth new tab. They're individually approved brand placements rather than behaviorally targeted ads, but turning this off removes them entirely; you can keep Brave's own backgrounds or use your own photo instead.
New Tab Page → Customize → Brave News → Show Brave News → Off
Brave News ships with sources enabled by default and appears as a scrollable feed below the New Tab page. It isn't required for the browser to function; turning it off removes the feed and stops it fetching articles in the background. If you find it useful, prune the source list instead.
Brave Rewards and Ads
brave://rewards → Ads → Confirm off unless you intentionally opted in
Brave Ads (the privately-matched ads that pay out Basic Attention Token rewards) are opt-in and off by default; you have to turn on Brave Rewards yourself before Ads can run. Since this can be enabled during onboarding or by tapping a notification without reading it closely, it's worth confirming the toggle in `brave://rewards` matches what you intended. There's no privacy cost to leaving it off.
Data sent to Brave
Settings → Privacy and security → Automatically send diagnostic reports to Brave Software → Off
When Brave crashes, this sends a report with technical information about your system and the event that caused it. Turning it off means reports are only sent if you choose to submit one manually.
Settings → Privacy and security → Privacy-Preserving Product Analytics (P3A) → Off
P3A sends periodic, cryptographically anonymized answers to specific product questions Brave defines, such as roughly how many tabs or extensions are typical, or whether Shields is on. It's designed to avoid collecting anything individually identifying, using a system called STAR that only reveals an answer once enough other users share the same value, a genuinely more careful approach than most browser telemetry. It's still data leaving your device by default, and you can opt out without losing any functionality. The toggle's exact wording has moved between releases, so check Help or About in Settings if it isn't under Privacy and security.
Leo AI
Settings → Leo → Chat history → Consider Off, or use temporary chats
Leo doesn't use conversations to train models, require an account, or retain server-side chat logs. By default, though, it keeps conversation history in local storage so you can return to earlier chats. If you share the device or want nothing to persist, turn history off, use a temporary chat for one session, or periodically clear Leo data from the same settings page.
Web3 and IPFS
Settings → Web3 → Method to resolve IPFS resources → Disabled (if you never use IPFS links)
Brave can resolve `ipfs://` addresses through a public gateway, prompt you each time ("Ask"), or not at all; the local IPFS node option was deprecated in 2024, so resolution now routes through a gateway rather than fully locally. If you don't use IPFS or ENS-style Web3 domains, disabling resolution avoids any gateway seeing those requests; if you use them occasionally, "Ask" is a reasonable middle ground.
Wallet connection prompts → Leave at the default, ask before connecting
Brave Wallet ships built in and can surface a connection icon in the toolbar even if you've never used a crypto wallet. This is a UI surface rather than a data-collection one, sites can't access it without your explicit approval, so there's nothing to lock down beyond declining prompts from sites you don't recognize.
Trade-offs
- Strict fingerprinting protection can break banking portals, CAPTCHAs, and canvas- or WebGL-dependent web apps; Standard mode already blocks most fingerprinting attempts.
- Turning off sponsored New Tab images and Brave News removes a small amount of Brave’s own revenue and content-discovery surface, with no effect on the rest of the browsing experience.
- Disabling P3A and crash reports means Brave has less aggregate signal about how the browser is used, which it relies on to prioritize fixes. Its telemetry design already minimizes what’s collected compared to most browsers.
- Turning off Leo’s chat history means you can’t scroll back to earlier conversations; you’d need to re-ask or re-paste context each session.
- Disabling IPFS resolution means
ipfs://links (used by some decentralized sites and NFT projects) won’t load without switching the setting back or using a gateway URL directly.
Who should not change these settings
- If you intentionally opted into Brave Rewards to earn BAT for viewing ads, leave that as-is, this guide only flags the case where it was turned on unintentionally.
- If you use Brave News regularly and are comfortable with a curated feed on your New Tab page, there’s no need to disable it, just prune the source list.
- If you want to support Brave’s development and are comfortable with its privacy-preserving telemetry design, leaving P3A and diagnostic reports on is a reasonable choice, it’s one of the more carefully engineered telemetry systems among mainstream browsers.
- If you regularly return to earlier Leo conversations, keep chat history on rather than clearing it each time.
- If you interact with IPFS sites, ENS domains, or Web3 dApps regularly, leave IPFS resolution set to “Ask” or “Gateway,” and expect wallet connection prompts as a normal part of that workflow.