I’m on version v1.54.16 brave nightly and enabled “forgetful browsing” in the flags and relaunched the browser. Enabled it by default in shields settings, verified it was on on both sites I tested. I logged into github and americafirst, closed the sites, waited a few seconds, opened them backed up again, pressed login, and I was still logged in. Not sure if I’m misunderstanding how it works or how to use it properly, just a bit concerned as I stayed logged in to both sites.
I enabled the flag and it was there, it’s not enabled by default in nightly right now
The cookies do not disappear immediately after leaving the site, instead go to
brave://settings/content/all
and view all cookies currently stored in the browser, and refresh until they disappear, I would say that it takes around 10 seconds
Thank you! Just wish it acted a little faster 
I’m not sure if there’s a technical reason for this, but in practice this slight pause before clearing cookies and cache allows for not having to re-sign in or re-change settings if you accidentally close a site, so I honestly prefer this delayed approach better than if Brave immediately cleared cookies
This removes the Data from the Normal Storage… why do you think it should be faster? it’s a pretty sensitive setting since it will remove stuff that is meant to be permanent by Chromium, it is not supposed to be cleared every single second just because you close tabs.
if you want ‘faster’ then use Ephemeral Storage in brave://settings/cookies: Sites that clear cookies when you close them.
Ephemeral storage is a temporary storage so it clears faster, because it is meant to be temporary, and makes more sense to use than clearing normal storage just, so the information gets rewritten again and again and again once you visit the website again…
Also, you can manually remove the storages by using the Site Information panel (padlock icon) or Devtools or brave://settings/content/all, if you need it, you manually clear it so you save whatever seconds it takes.
So no, it doesn’t need to be faster, especially when disks will write more information that way, it just needs to work when it makes sense, which is not ‘immediately’.
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I guess I misunderstood the mechanics nd purpose of forgetful browsing, my bad. I interpreted as that I could close a tab of say youtube, come back right after, and not be signed in, without waiting 10-15 seconds. But that s my bad, I’m not too familiar with how browser mechanics work
Well, there are many ways to clear data in Brave, I guess that’s also the problem.
But for example:
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Clear the whole data with Ctrl+Shift+Del, which can be done automatically on Exit. This clears the whole Normal Data/Storage/History in Brave.
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Forgetful Browsing will clear Normal Storage, This seems to be better as it can be done by domain, and it’s not a global option, I think they might add more elements to ‘forget’ like History to it, it would make sense, but who we shall see.
It’s like a cross between InPrivate windows and Normal Windows, but it allows you to quickly untoggle the clear so you can decide in a matter of seconds if you want to clear or not the storages, which is nice, since it is in the Shields Panel, but it is meant more as a way to make sure your data is cleared not to quickly clear the data, which would be bad if you accidentally closed the tab and then your data is gone immediately.
But anyway, in brave://settings/cookies you can find two more ‘automatic’ clearing options for the data. (there are manual ones through devtools, site information panel, settings/content/all)
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Clear cookies and site data when you close all windows, is a global option which clears Normal Storage as well, but you can exclude sites by adding them toSites that can always use cookies, so it is like clearing “On Exit” but being able to exclude sites, makes it better. -
And finally,
Sites that clear cookies when you close them, this is the only option that uses Ephemeral Storage, which means it will never be write to or use data frombrave://settings/content/all, it will NOT clear the Normal Storage, so if you visited the website previously, the data will remind there.
But since it uses Ephemeral Storage, the site storage will be cleared really immediate as soon as you close the site because it is meant to be a Temporary Storage.
This is what Brave uses by default for the third-party cookies/other storages, it doesn’t ‘block them’ but put them there and clears the Ephemeral Storage immediately when site is closed because the storage is tied to the domain, so there is no a ‘TTL’ to it.
That’s why using that for First-Party storages makes sense to use if you want to close the tab and have the sign-in or any other cookie and stuff being clears as soon as possible.
You have to understand that the nature of Ephemeral Storage is not going to be displayed in Devtools or brave://settings/content/all because it is temporary, you can only see the data being accessed by the website in Site Information panel (padlock in address bar).
Seems like Chromium messed up with it, and now it is ‘simpler’ but more useless, even if only cookies displayed properly in the panel and not Local/Session Storage for example, it was better than now.
Also, you have to understand, when you add a site to the list of Sites that clear cookies when you close them you need to refresh page for the website to use the Ephemeral Storage, which is the difference from clearing Normal vs Ephemeral storages.
But for example Don’t Allow to save data will add the domain to the Sites that can never use cookies
and Delete when you close all windows, will add it to Sites that clear cookies when you close them
Also you can see the difference between sites that have only 1p data vs 1p&3p
It says “Not allowed to save data to your device” because it is third-party being ‘blocked’ by the Chromium code, but the data exists in the Ephemeral Storage.
Disqus appears as “allowed” because only cookies display correctly when added to the Ephemeral Storage.
If you disabled the Ephemeral Storage, you would see all 3p being blocked properly.
So, as you can see, Forgetful Browsing is kind of useless if you think about it, unless they expand it to truly delete the data like History and all that, Brave Ephemeral Storage, is really amazing on what it does, and I hope they keep improving it, instead of building features around Normal Storage, which is fine, but having the data being written in the Browsers normal data vs being written in a temporary storage that nobody really has access to it, seems more private and better for the user.
Even if the information is wrongly displayed in the site information panel, and the name of the feature is not exactly what it does because it is not clearing site’s data (from Brave’s normal user data), so it kind of is improperly label and ect etc, it’s a superior feature for sure, in terms of privacy, what it does, and it allows to do cool stuff.
But for example, you can even have two different login information in Brave at the same time (like a single Firefox container), by using Ephemeral Storage, if you normally access the website and log in, and then you add the site to the Ephemeral Storage option, you can just refresh the page and log in again, if you remove the site from the list and refresh, it will use the normal Storage which means first login data, if you add it back to the list and then refresh it will use the Ephemeral login data, because the Ephemeral Storage will live until you close the all the tabs from that domain.
So that’s why you should use it if that’s exactly what you want, to close tab and then start over immediately.