So once again ads bite users in the rear.

Decoupling ad blocking from the browser would be darn smart (ublock origin is simply awesome - so far).

Ad blocking on browser layer should be done via plugins / addons.

Question is what is / was Brave shipping out - calling home - to check? Is Brave saying here is a domain that cleared in the browser, let's call home remotely to verify? That's what it appears.

That isn't a feature. That is Brave collecting lookups unknown to those running the browser. When I do a lookup I expect MY DNS SERVER to deal with it. I don't expect the browser to go talking behind my back.

Terrible 'feature' that should be removed. It is distributed intelligence and I understand that pursuit well. However, it is something people ought to opt into and be aware of.

So yes, Brave likely has been logging onion addresses also and internal domains and other private things they should never be seeing. What is being done with that data and where is note of handling and destruction thereof?

Funnier though is Brave should have seen these onion address lookups whenever 'bug' was introduced. Smart people know those don't belong there. Something isn't right about all of this. Doesn't pass sniff test.

It is up to Brave to prove what they are or aren't doing. I don't believe it until someone speaks and provides code and breaks it down for non coders.