Google recently added a feature to their browser that lets websites verify that the request is made by a genuine Chrome browser and not, say, a bot. To soften the blow, Google made the specification of their feature open source, so others could use the same mechanism to attest their requests being made from, say, a genuine instance of Apple Safari, or Mozilla Firefox.

Though useful in combatting spam, this proposal limits the openness of the Web and the ability of competing browser vendors to, well, compete. This made it controversial.

Apparently, Brave, a browser based upon Chrome, recently disabled this feature. Removing it doesn’t necessarily mean that your browser becomes less secure. It means websites cannot tell that you’re running a genuine version of your browser.