Forgive me if there is already something like this in the works that I am currently unaware of, but Brave should establish it’s own extension “market” or “store” where people can rate, recommend and of course source extensions or add-ons instead of relying on the Chrome store, as it is under the control of a competitor to Brave.
Not to mention that Google isn’t known for effective data protection of users of Google services or products, so the usage of extensions sourced from the Chrome store may be a concern for Brave Browser users.
As for developer mode: I currently use an extension known as “Dissenter”, this is a simple but ingenious comment hosting service where users can comment on web-pages directly, similar to “Disqus” but it is more versatile. As it has been removed from the Chrome store, I needed to source the extension from the site behind it directly. (A dedicated extension market would negate this issue.)
The problem with this is that as I had to enable developer mode to add it, I now always need to hide a message warning me about it despite the fact that I disabled developer mode. A simple solution would be to add a “trusted extensions” feature or something of the sort to prevent that message from always appearing. I’ve seen it and I am well aware of what it is warning me about, but I am also well aware that Dissenter poses no such risk.
I’m sorry that this is longer than it needed to be, but I thank anyone who took the time to read it. I hope Brave grows in popularity and becomes more successful as it is an effective browser with interesting features.
You think that’s way too easy.
The developers would probably have to create a special version for Brave, which would then be available outside of Firefox and Chrome.
I second something like this. It’s an inevitable necessity to have some sort of long-term solution for “verbotten” extensions like Dissenter which aren’t intrinsically negative for users, but which are nonetheless removed from conventional app stores.
But as a much easier, stop-gap solution, a way to “whitelist” trusted extensions (at our own risk) like Dissenter to avoid a pop-up on opening would definitely be appreciated. And it could help reduce the interest in potential alternative browsers like the one Gab (Dissenter) has in the works because of precisely this issue.
Good to know that one is a possibility, although I see that they say the roadmap list isn’t “set in stone” yet.
potential alternative browsers like the one Gab (Dissenter) has in the works because of precisely this issue.
I know this goes directly against the point you’re making but I would be interested to hear more about this browser, because if it does end up being superior then I won’t hesitate to change browsers, (not that I dislike Brave though).
I second this. Censorship is being enforced more and more by all big techs. Many times they have nothing to do with security, but only for political reasons. Relying solely on Google to allow/disallow browser extensions has been an issue with Brave.
Or maybe Brave could allow to manually whitelist extensions coming from open source repositories.
