X-RAY · 14 SEPTEMBER 2026
Brave against Chrome: what left the machine on four websites
In two minutes across El Tiempo, El Heraldo, YouTube and Mercado Libre, 151 advertising and tracking names left the machine with Brave and 211 with Chrome; 145 left with both. Brave made the machine look up nine of its maker's services the moment it opened.
How to read this. GUARDIANA writes down every name the machine asks to resolve (DNS). It sees names, not content, and it sees the machine, not the program. Only these names are published and counted here: the ones some page asked for in a browser measured from the inside, the ones a browser blocked, and the makers’ own; whatever other apps on the test machine resolved during that time is left out. Browsers change every month: this holds for the date above.
The record
- First x-ray: it compares two browsers. From the next one on, the comparison is always between five, with at least one that presents itself as private.
- Date: 14 September 2026, 14:32 to 14:52 (Bogotá time).
- Machine: a Mac (macOS 26.5.2) with its DNS pointing at GUARDIANA 0.2.0 on the machine itself.
- Brave 153.1.95.101 and Google Chrome 153.0.8010.36, each with a freshly created profile and its default settings.
- Sites: eltiempo.com, elheraldo.co, youtube.com and mercadolibre.com.co, in that order, 20 seconds with scrolling on each and 15 of waiting at the end; DNS cache emptied before each browser.
- Idle test: Brave with an empty profile, no site opened, four minutes.
- Made by GUARDIANA in Cartagena de Indias. Nobody from the maker took part.
- Correction on the evening of 14 Sep: the figures dropped slightly (152→151, 215→211, 146→145) when each browser’s window was closed two seconds after its test instead of twenty; the twenty-second tail could pick up queries that were not its own.
Scoreboard
Out of the 217 advertising, tracking and telemetry names seen across the whole test, how many each browser let through and how many it kept in.
| Browser | Let through | Kept in | The maker's own services | Let through the least |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brave | 151 | 66 | 9 | yes |
| Chrome | 211 | 6 | 28 |
Brave let 60 fewer names through than Chrome on the same four pages. It is a result of these four sites on this day, not a general verdict.
What it says
Brave stops part of the tracking, not all of it: almost seven out of every ten advertising and tracking names that left with Chrome also left with Brave (doubleclick, rubiconproject, adnxs, pubmatic, criteo, smartadserver, Yahoo analytics, among others). And blocking does not always stop the name from leaving: the browser resolves some names before it stops the request.
What only a guardian on the machine sees
Each browser's “blocked” counter counts requests inside the browser. GUARDIANA counts what leaves the machine, which is a different thing:
- Straight after opening, with nothing touched: services of the maker contacted over four idle minutes — Brave 9. No browser shows you this list on its own screen.
- “Blocked” is not always “never left”: 18 names the browser marked as blocked reached the DNS anyway — it resolved the name before stopping the request. Whoever answers your DNS sees them; the browser's counter does not count them.
- Attempts to bypass the machine's DNS (queries to someone else's encrypted DNS resolver, the “DNS evasion” signal): none in this test. If they succeed, those queries leave without any home guardian seeing them; GUARDIANA says so when they try.
- Outside the browser: in each two-minute window the machine also looked up between 27 and 65 services belonging to other apps. They are not published (they are the test machine's), but in your own panel you would see them one by one, next to the phones and the TV of the house.
- And it says what escapes it: traffic over its own encrypted DNS, a VPN or a private relay does not go through the machine’s DNS. GUARDIANA flags it when it detects it and writes it into its limits; it does not promise to see a hundred per cent.
Detail
| Measure | Brave | Chrome |
|---|---|---|
| Distinct names that left the machine | 268 | 398 |
| · advertising | 125 | 173 |
| · trackers | 26 | 36 |
| · telemetry | 0 | 2 |
| · on no list that knows them | 117 | 185 |
| Advertising + trackers + telemetry | 151 | 211 |
| The maker's own domains | 9 | 28 |
| Requests the pages made (distinct names) | 263 | 383 |
| Names the browser blocked | 22 | 0 |
| Blocked names that reached the DNS anyway | 18 | 0 |
| The machine's other services in that time (other apps; not published) | 27 | 65 |
| Attempts to use someone else’s encrypted DNS (the “DNS evasion” signal) | 0 | 0 |
| Measured from the inside (DevTools) | yes | yes |
| Of the 217 advertising, tracking and telemetry names seen in the test | |
|---|---|
| Left with every browser | 145 |
| Brave avoided | 66 |
| Chrome avoided | 6 |
Brave
What it does on its own
With a freshly created profile, without any website asking for it:
variations.brave.com· which features to turn on or try out in your copy · 2 queriesusage-ping.brave.com· the daily “this Brave was used” ping; it can be switched off · 2 queriesgo-updater.brave.com· the browser's updates · 4 queriescomponentupdater.brave.com· component updates (lists, filters) · 4 queriesbrave-core-ext.s3.brave.com· downloading extensions and components · 2 queriesredirector.brave.com· downloading lists and resources · 4 queriesstar-randsrv.bsg.brave.com· product statistics (Brave calls them P3A, “privacy-preserving analytics”); they can be switched off · 6 queriescollector.bsg.brave.com· the collection of those statistics; it can be switched off · 4 queriessafebrowsing.brave.com· checking for dangerous sites · 2 queries
Doing nothing
Empty profile, no site open, 240 seconds. What it asked for on its own, with the second at which it did:
variations.brave.com· at 0 s · 2 queriesusage-ping.brave.com· at 0 s · 2 queriesgo-updater.brave.com· at 0 s · 4 queriescomponentupdater.brave.com· at 0 s · 4 queriesbrave-core-ext.s3.brave.com· at 0 s · 2 queriesredirector.brave.com· at 1 s · 4 queriesstar-randsrv.bsg.brave.com· at 3 s · 12 queriescollector.bsg.brave.com· at 67 s · 6 queriessafebrowsing.brave.com· at 238 s · 2 queries
Advertising, tracking and telemetry that went out (151)
The twenty with the most queries; the rest is in the data.
pixel-eu.rubiconproject.com· advertising · 8t.adx.opera.com· tracker · 7ssbsync.smartadserver.com· advertising · 6ssc-cms.33across.com· advertising · 5ad.turn.com· advertising · 5usermatch.krxd.net· tracker · 5ssp-sync.criteo.com· advertising · 5ups.analytics.yahoo.com· tracker · 5cm.g.doubleclick.net· advertising · 5id5-sync.com· advertising · 5cs.admanmedia.com· advertising · 5ads.pubmatic.com· advertising · 5googleads.g.doubleclick.net· advertising · 5pagead2.googlesyndication.com· advertising · 5ssb-global.smartadserver.com· advertising · 5ssbsync-global.smartadserver.com· advertising · 5rtb.openx.net· advertising · 5secure.adnxs.com· advertising · 5securepubads.g.doubleclick.net· advertising · 5tpc.googlesyndication.com· advertising · 5
What it blocked (22)
a.teads.tvapi-esp.piano.ioapi.permutive.comcdn.taboola.comendpoint2.mathilde-ads.comevents.newsroom.bifastlane.rubiconproject.comgrid-bidder.criteo.comhttp2.mlstatic.comicu.newsroom.biid5-sync.comprint1.mercadoclics.coms.go-mpulse.netsdk.mrf.ioshb.richaudience.comssb-global.smartadserver.comstatic.hotjar.comstats-collector.cxense.comweb-banner.ads.aps.amazon-adsystem.comwww.google.comwww.google.com.cowww.youtube.com
Of those, these reached the DNS anyway (18): it resolved the name before stopping the request, so whoever answers the DNS sees them.
a.teads.tvapi-esp.piano.ioapi.permutive.comendpoint2.mathilde-ads.comevents.newsroom.bifastlane.rubiconproject.comgrid-bidder.criteo.comhttp2.mlstatic.comicu.newsroom.biid5-sync.comsdk.mrf.ioshb.richaudience.comssb-global.smartadserver.comstats-collector.cxense.comweb-banner.ads.aps.amazon-adsystem.comwww.google.comwww.google.com.cowww.youtube.com
Chrome
What it does on its own
With a freshly created profile, without any website asking for it:
www.google.com· 18 queriesclientservices.googleapis.com· 4 queriesaccounts.google.com· 8 queriesclients2.google.com· 5 queriesupdate.googleapis.com· 7 querieswww.gstatic.com· 8 queriesimasdk.googleapis.com· 4 queriesogads-pa.clients6.google.com· 2 queriestools.google.com· 2 queriesfonts.gstatic.com· 8 queriesfonts.googleapis.com· 6 queriesandroid.clients.google.com· 2 querieswww.google.com.co· 10 queriesmtalk.google.com· 1 queryplay.google.com· 4 queriesanalytics.google.com· 6 queriesoptimizationguide-pa.googleapis.com· 4 queriesjnn-pa.googleapis.com· 4 queriescsi.gstatic.com· 4 queriesbeacons.gcp.gvt2.com· 12 queriesplay.googleapis.com· 3 queriesnews.google.com· 4 queriesfundingchoicesmessages.google.com· 2 queriesadservice.google.com· 2 queriessafebrowsing.googleapis.com· 2 queriesgoogle.com· 2 queriese2c16.gcp.gvt2.com· 2 queriesbeacons.gvt2.com· 2 queries
Advertising, tracking and telemetry that went out (211)
The twenty with the most queries; the rest is in the data.
pagead2.googlesyndication.com· advertising · 15beacons.gcp.gvt2.com· advertising · 12googleads.g.doubleclick.net· advertising · 10tpc.googlesyndication.com· advertising · 10securepubads.g.doubleclick.net· advertising · 8stats.g.doubleclick.net· advertising · 6ad.turn.com· advertising · 6events.newsroom.bi· tracker · 6analytics.google.com· advertising · 6cm.g.doubleclick.net· advertising · 6gum.criteo.com· advertising · 6id5-sync.com· advertising · 6www.google-analytics.com· advertising · 6www.googletagmanager.com· tracker · 6rtb-csync.smartadserver.com· advertising · 6ads.pubmatic.com· advertising · 5pbs-us-east.openx.net· advertising · 5clients2.google.com· telemetry · 5sync-km.ads.yieldmo.com· advertising · 5ice.360yield.com· advertising · 4
What it blocked (0)
None.
Of those, these reached the DNS anyway (0): it resolved the name before stopping the request, so whoever answers the DNS sees them.
None.
What can be claimed
- Brave makes the machine look up nine of its maker's services the moment it opens, without the person doing anything; two of them are usage and product statistics switched on by default.
- With its default settings, its shields let most of the advertising and tracking names of the news and shopping sites tested pass.
- It resolves by DNS names it then blocks, so whoever answers the DNS (your internet provider, or whichever DNS provider you use) sees them anyway.
- It avoided 66 advertising and tracking names that Chrome did contact, and it does not talk to Google on its own the way Chrome does.
What cannot be claimed
- That the machine went on to connect to those services, or that it sent anything: what is seen here is that the machine asked for the name. A connection almost always follows, but a browser also looks names up ahead of time and sometimes never uses them.
- What data travels when there is a connection: GUARDIANA sees names, not content.
- That Brave “spies”: its services are documented by the maker, and several can be switched off in its settings.
- That these figures hold for all sites or forever: four sites, two minutes, one day, one version.
What you can switch off
- Settings → Privacy and security: the daily usage ping and the product statistics (P3A). The exact names change with each version.
- Settings → Privacy and security: page preloading, which resolves names before you ask for them.
- Shields in “aggressive” mode for whichever site you choose: it blocks more, at the cost of the odd page breaking.
- With GUARDIANA, any of these names is blocked from the panel the moment you point at it, with undo beside it. Extending it to the whole house at once does wait until GUARDIANA has been watching for a day, so that it can tell you what breaks.
Data and method
Full data: brave-frente-a-chrome-2026-09-14.csv. Method: both browsers opened with a freshly created profile and the DNS cache emptied just before, then the same four sites, 20 seconds each, two minutes in all; names taken from the machine's GUARDIANA ledger for each time window, this machine's queries only. The tools are in the program's repository (site/src/radiografia/); anyone can repeat the test with GUARDIANA installed.
Brands named as the names of their owners. If you are the owner and something here is inaccurate, write to hola@guardianagroup.com: it is corrected, with the date.
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