Brave Browser will soon redirect web pages that use Google AMP technology to the regular page automatically.
AMP, which stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, is a Google technology that Brave considers harmful to privacy, security and a user's experience.
Google claims that AMP improves the user experience by improving the loading performance of AMP-supported web pages. The pages are served by Google servers which uses preloading techniques to projection of AMP content.
Pages loaded via AMP look like they came from the publisher's website, but they really are not.
It should be noted that Anti-AMP extensions are already released for most of them programs browsing. Firefox users can install the Redirect AMP to HMTL, while users of Chromium-based browsers can use this version.
Brave Software highlights the following issues with Google's AMP technology:
- AMP is harmful to privacy - AMP pages provide Google with more information as the content is viewed by Google. Google penalizes publishers who do not use AMP with reduced search visibility.
- AMP is bad for security - AMP content is uploaded by Google, but makes it appear as if it came directly from the publisher.
- AMP promotes Web monopoly - AMP content gives Google more control over the web, using "arbitrary templates". Google controls the layout and technology used by AMP pages and this of course benefits the company's core business, advertising.
- AMP is bad for performance and usability Google's claim that AMP-supported pages load faster only applies to "average performance". AMP pages may load slower than normal pages displayed on a publisher's website (Google revealed it to DOJ).
Η Google is already preparing AMP 2.0, although it will not be called that. The next version uses Signed Exchange and WebBundle technologies, proposed by Google, and will result in "more of the web being displayed by Google servers" and "giving users less control over how they interact with this content". according to Brave.
Η Brave considers Signed Exchange and WebBundles to be very problematic in terms of privacy, performance and user control.
Starting with Brave 1.38 already available on Beta and Nightly channels, De-AMP will be enabled automatically by default.
With De-AMP enabled, Brave will parse links directly to direct redirects to the publisher's website. This will also apply to Google Search, among others.
