Brave’s new “Shred” button wipes site-specific data like cookies, local storage, and network-related caches. DuckDuckGo browser offers a similar feature with a cool animation, and Brave is also going for the same thing.
You have been able to remove your browsing data on almost every browser. However, removing site-specific data other than cookies has been very difficult until now. Brave’s announcement of this feature surprised me a bit, as this feature is not available on mainstream browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari yet.
To give you a clear picture of what was available on most browsers, if you wanted to clear “site data,” it would clear all site data and log you out of every website. Shred lets you delete that same site data for specific websites.
Limitations from Apple
In their blog post, the Brave Privacy Team shared their frustrations. While Shred is a step in the right direction, it is a bit limited by certain Apple restrictions. This results in some data persisting on device after activating the feature.
On a Surveillance Report podcast, they shared their findings on what data points Brave misses. The only major thing they could find is that it doesn’t shred device motion and orientation data. Now, if you ask me, it’s not that big of an issue. But even if it was, there’s nothing Brave can do as it’s up to Apple to provide an API via WebKit that would solve this issue.
How to use Shred?
You can Shred site data manually or set it up so that it automatically deletes the data. There are three ways to invoke Shred manually.
- Long-press the tabs button
- Tap the Shred button in the tabs tray
- Select the new Shred option in Shields
To set up auto-shredding, you must go to Shields > Advanced Controls > Shred Site Data. From there, you can choose Auto Shred when you close a tab or the Brave app.
Shred is currently available on iOS only. However, the Brave team has promised Android and desktop releases soon. While the manual aspect of Shred is new for Brave, a feature similar to Auto Shred has already been there for a while. On Brave desktop and Android app, there’s a “Forget me when I close this site” feature that essentially works the same way. Shred will soon replace this feature.
What does Shred mean for your privacy?
You might think Shred is a glorified cleanup tool. It can actually save you some storage if you use it on enough sites. But that’s not the main reason you should use it. Some cleanup apps will make you believe that your site data is slowing down your browser or even your system, but that’s not how it works.
What Shred achieves matters more in terms of privacy. It prevents websites from building a detailed profile of your activities by wiping cookies, caches and local storage on demand. It can especially come in handy if you’re using a shared device and you might not want others accessing sensitive data.
Shred is a practical step towards online privacy, and I’m looking forward to finding similar features on other browsers like Firefox and Edge.