Brave Browser will soon allow users to block annoying and potentially privacy-damaging cookie consent banners on all websites they visit.

If you visited BleepingComputer from Europe, you might have noticed an annoying cookie consent prompt asking if you want to accept data collection cookies from our advertisers.

These notifications are incredibly annoying but have become necessary for doing business online to comply with data protection regulations like GDPR.

In some cases, however, these banners can themselves serve as trackersbecause they engage in a privacy-invading data exchange even before the user has a chance to opt out.

Second, consent prompts are widely believed to seriously disrupt the browsing experience, as users have to deal with them almost every time they visit a website.

Brave to block cookie consent notifications

Brave will now proactively detect and block cookie consent banners to address both of these issues, removing both a distraction and a potential risk to user privacy.

“Newer versions of Brave will hide and, where possible, completely block cookie consent notifications,” says Brave blog post.

“Brave’s approach is distinct and more privacy-friendly than similar systems used in other browsers (such as the “automatic consent” systems used in other browsers), and helps keep the user priority web.”

Unlike other solutions, such as browser extensions, which allow automatic user consent or block prompts, Brave claims that they break the communication channel between the browser and the consent tracking system.

The rollout of the new system will begin in Brave Nightly 1.45, which is slated for release in October, and will gradually transition to stable on Windows and Android. iOS will follow soon after.

The new option will appear in the browser settings, under “Shields”, where users can tick the box to block intrusive cookie notices.

All users will receive a prompt to set the new option when first launching Brave after the update that introduced the feature.

Finally, Brave denounces Google’s efforts for technologies that remove user control and give more experience-shaping power to websites, advertisers, data collectors and consent management systems.

“Cookie banners show how much worse the web will get if Google (and others) succeed in weakening users’ ability to block such annoyances,” Brave says.

Examples of these technologies are Manifesto V3, WebBundlesand Privacy sandboxthat Brave sees as obstacles rather than allies in its fight to strengthen user privacy and provide a frictionless web browsing experience.