Brave and Guardian Partner to Integrate Brave Browser with Guardian VPN to Power the Fastest, Safest Browsing Experience
Two leaders in the data privacy movement join forces to give people – not surveillance capitalists – control over their own data
SAN FRANCISCO – June 25, 2020 – Brave Software, makers of Brave browser, and Guardian, makers of Guardian Firewall + VPN for iOS, today are announcing a new partnership under which they will integrate their technologies to enable the fastest, safest, most private web browsing experience available. Specifically, Brave will offer Brave VPN powered by Guardian; and Guardian will allow users of its Firewall + VPN mobile app to pay for their subscription using Brave BAT cryptocurrency. This powerful combination allows people to take back control of their own data and browse the web more safely and securely.
When it comes to online privacy, the people are losing. The ones who are winning – surveillance capitalists and data miners with arsenals of trackers, invasive ads, and device fingerprinters – can (and do) track everywhere we go and everything we do and say and see. And then they sell that data – our data – unbeknownst to us, to anyone willing to pay for it. It’s called surveillance capitalism, it’s highly profitable, wildly unregulated, and more ubiquitous than you can possibly imagine.
Guardian and Brave are emerging leaders in a new privacy movement that is exposing the extent of online surveillance and the massive, shadowy data trading market it feeds. Both companies are working to give people the means to control their own data within this environment and shield it from companies that have no right to it.
Brave 1.0, launched November 13, combines privacy with a blockchain-based digital advertising platform to give users a safer, faster (3-6x), more private browsing experience, while funding the Web through a new attention-based platform of privacy-preserving advertisements and rewards. Guardian Firewall + VPN, which soft-launched their 1.0 release in August, is the first app for iOS that blocks data trackers and tells you who they are and what types of data they are trying to collect from you. The app includes a VPN (Virtual Private Network) through which all user traffic flows, encrypting and protecting anything users do while connected to the Internet. This is the Guardian technology that will be integrated into Brave VPN, to be made available next year.
“Brave is on a mission to replace surveillance-by-default with privacy-by-default. We just launched Brave 1.0 and already have nearly 9 million users, which shows convincingly that people are tired of being tracked and tagged and monitored every second of every day. Going forward, Guardian will be a big part of the mission to improve web browsing and give power back to people over the use of their own data,” said Brendan Eich, co-founder and CEO of Brave Software. “We evaluated over a dozen VPNs and chose Guardian because of the shared focus on user privacy of our two companies and the technical capabilities of Guardian. The VPN is a crucial part of the entire web experience that our users have wanted, and we look forward to bringing Brave VPN powered by Guardian capability to the market soon.”
“Brave and Guardian are like-minded companies, passionate about the right to protect privacy in an online world of uncontrolled surveillance, and we’re very pleased to join forces to put more power into users’ hands,” said Will Strafach, Guardian’s Chief Executive Officer. “Brave’s concept of privacy-by-default is key to an open web that works for everyone – users, advertisers, and publishers – and not just for a few mega companies. By integrating Guardian’s technology with Brave’s browser, we will offer a powerful solution for a much-improved web experience that’s three to six times faster than conventional browsers, and much safer and more private.”
“I've been watching the growth of Brave and Guardian for some time and seen first hand the commitment the teams have demonstrated both to user privacy, and in getting the hard technical details right.” said Kenn White, a security researcher and encryption engineer, ”I think this partnership is a great milestone in usable security for the web. It's exactly the sort of innovation we need to take a dent out of online tracking and unbounded data mining.”
About Brave Software
Brave Software’s fast, privacy-oriented browser, combined with its blockchain-based digital advertising platform, is reinventing the web for users, publishers and advertisers. Users get a private, speedier web experience with much longer battery life, publishers increase their revenue share, and advertisers achieve better conversion. Users can opt into privacy-respecting ads that reward them with a frequent flyer-like token they can redeem or use to tip or contribute to publishers and other content creators. The Brave solution is a win-win for everyone who has a stake in the open Web and who is weary of giving up privacy and revenue to the ad-tech intermediaries. Brave currently has 8.7 million monthly active users and over 300,000 Verified Publishers. Brave Software was co-founded by Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla (Firefox), and Brian Bondy, formerly of Khan Academy and Mozilla.
About Guardian
Guardian is advancing Personal Data Protection (PDP) by allowing anyone with an electronic device to take back control of their digital privacy. Guardian identifies threats before they impact your device, exposes sources attempting to track your data and lets you block that data from being collected. Guardian Firewall + VPN is the first-of-its-kind, super simple VPN for iOS with a real-time intelligent firewall that blocks unwanted network activity such as tracking and encrypts data in transit, protecting the security of your data. For more information, go to https://guardianapp.com or the App Store to download and purchase.