Brave browser search engine settings pose privacy risk

I like using Brave browser because I value my privacy and sanity online, and it pains me to have to write this article, but since the issue about search engine settings I reported back in December 2022 kept being ignored and the situation has considerably worsened as a result of Google's upstream changes to Chromium I have no other option but to document my findings publicly and warn all Brave users of the risk to their privacy.

The timeline of the issue is as follows:

• 2022-12-18 I report that Brave is re-adding default search engine on every update.
• 2023-10-30 (Yes almost a year later with no response!) I post "This is still an issue".
• 2024-04-18 I tag @fmarier @rebron @BrendanEich asking for someone to at least look into it, and add that Brave is now also reactivating Tabs, History, and Bookmarks searches in addition to re-adding search engines.
• 2025-06-18 @bsclifton finally acknowledges that there is an issue and cc's @rebron for prioritization.
• 2025-06-18 I point out that the keywords table now has a column called url_hash which is a 64-byte blob which looks like a serialized protobuf struct with God knows what kind of hash algo used making it impossible to bulk import custom search engines — this admittedly isn't supported (and I acknowledge it), but it goes to show how search engine settings are becoming more and more user-hostile in the name of "protecting your search engine choice" (from yourself apparently).
• 2026-01-25 I point out that I am still getting default search engines re-added in the latest Brave version and that those @shortcuts below search sites keep reactivating themselves too.
• 2026-08-24 I tag @bsclifton @rebron @BrendanEich @ShivanKaul as I discovered that the setting Don't add search engines has been removed, that Brave is now collecting and storing all search engines from all sites you visit (and those you don't through prefetching it seems) and how this has now become also a privacy issue, not just UI/UX issue.
• 2026-08-30 I tag @bsclifton @rebron @BrendanEich @ShivanKaul @fmarier saying I am not giving up on this until they either close as not planned / won't fix or explain what is being done to address it.

As of this writing there's still no response.

Summary of the issues I have with search settings UI/UX in Brave

1. Entries under Search Engines do not stay deleted

Why offer an option to delete them at all if you won't respect my choice?

2. Entries now require confirmation to delete making it even more tedious to clean up

Why add friction? The problem of dumb users accidentally removing search engines can be elegantly solved simply by adding a button Restore Default Search Engines and letting the rest of us keep them customized as we want.

3. Inactive Shorcuts list is confusing

It mixes built-in functionality (Bookmarks, Brave, History, Tabs) with inactive site search engines collected during browsing. Worse, when you delete some of those inactive sites from Inactive Shortcuts list (See? Sites on a shortcuts list? How does that make sense?) new ones shift in from Additional Inactive Sites list below into it. Why is that a good UX/UI? It's not.

4. Additional Inactive Sites is a privacy issue

• The option to not collect search engines should not have been deleted.
• You can delete history and cache and cookies and offline site data but this thing still keeps a list of sites you visited and you would have to manually purge it, one by one? How is that good for privacy?

The simple answer is that it isn't.

Google has made these changes to Chromium and Brave Software apparently did nothing to differentiate themselves despite claims about being privacy and choice first:

1. Added the mechanism to re-add removed default search engines on every update with no opt-out
2. Made it impossible to edit keywords table in the SQLite database manually by adding url_hash
3. Made it impossible to edit an existing search entry URL (so you can't remove the query parameter identifying the browser to search provider)
4. Blurred the line between on-device searches (Tabs, History, Bookmarks) and online searches by introducing Inactive Shortcuts which mixes both kinds of search engines in the single list
5. Removed Do not add search engines toggle from settings and started collecting all search engines through OpenSearch protocol

I hope you now understand what I am getting at, and what this UI/UX issue has turned into? In case you don't let me spell it out for you:

The issue is that your Brave browser is now collecting a breadcrumb trail of search engines which point to all websites you ever visited and you can't do shit to stop this collection — sure, you can delete your history, cache, cookies, logins all with a single click, but as long as your Brave profile Web Data SQLite database exists and you didn't remember to go to search engine settings and painstakingly click Delete on each one of those collected search engines every time before closing your browser anyone will be able to reconstruct your web browsing history by simply running the following SQLite command while Brave is closed:

sqlite3 "%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Web Data" "select url from keywords;"

And before you bring up nothing to hide argument let me remind you of this Edward Snowden quote:

Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.

To conclude, unless Brave Software devleopers do something different than Google here, I deem the privacy part of this issue big enough to stop using Brave browser over it.