Online security and privacy are a serious concern for every user who accesses the internet, even more so if that's where a majority of your work takes place. Third-party cookie tracking has been used by giant corporations and smaller entities as a means of tracking user activity across different websites, even after logging out from services. But with awareness on the topic growing each day, companies have pivoted to other tracking means, such as relying on reidentification via first-party cookies, recognizing returning visitors. Makers of privacy-focused Brave Browser have announced a new feature coming to their web and Android versions, known as Forgetful Browsing.

As many would point out, this isn't unlike the Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed option on Mozilla's beloved web browser. Per the Brave team's own admission, these features may be available on existing solutions but could be tough to use for the average individual "and/or require user perfection."

The company's solution involves using Brave Shield, its existing ad/tracker blocking solution located in the URL bar. Naturally, you can enable Forgetful Browsing on some websites or set it as the global default. Brave suggests using the latter option and then making exceptions for sites that need to remember some of your data, such as an email or a social media account.

To make Forgetful Browsing the global default, you can type in brave://settings/shields in the URL bar and toggle the Forget me when I close a site option. You can then make exceptions as mentioned above by tapping the Shields icon in the address bar -> Advanced controls and disabling the Forget me when I close this site toggle.

Forgetful Browsing completely wipes HTTP/DNS cache, cookies, localStorage, etc, leaving no room for first-party reidentification of any sort. This solution is certainly simpler for those who prefer some additional online privacy from companies that are constantly trying to find newer ways of tracking online activity.

Brave Browser users will find Forgetful Browsing settings with version 1.53 on the web and version 1.54 on Android, so there's a bit of waiting to do before you can access this new feature.