v1.0.3

Fixed

• Shields-off now also bypasses the static filter lists, generic CSS, the DOM observer, and the YouTube ad-blocker. Used to leak through and break cookies on disabled sites.

Install

Download brave-shields-extension-v1.0.3.zip, extract, go to chrome://extensions, enable Developer Mode, click "Load unpacked", select the extracted folder.

v1.0.2

Fixed

• Cross-site cookie blocking no longer logs you out. Now only blocks third-party Set-Cookie (trackers can't store new cookies), instead of also stripping request Cookie headers. Logged-in sessions on YouTube, OAuth flows, and multi-domain sites are unaffected. All mode unchanged.

Install

Download brave-shields-extension-v1.0.2.zip, extract, go to chrome://extensions, enable Developer Mode, click "Load unpacked", select the extracted folder.

v1.0.1

Brave Shields as a standalone Chromium extension.

Works on Chrome, Edge, Arc, Vivaldi, Opera, Thorium — anything Chromium-based.

What's new in 1.0.1

Per-site controls

• Standard / Aggressive ad blocking — Aggressive adds extra first-party trackers (Google Analytics, Hotjar, Segment, FullStory, etc.)
• Cross-site / All / None cookie blocking — All also wipes existing cookies so you actually log out
• Settings persist per-hostname and are enforced via dynamic DNR rules

Stats and badge

• Block counts split into ads, scripts/trackers, and fingerprinting buckets
• Added uBlock Privacy filter list as the fingerprinting source
• Badge shows the umbrella total

Popup UI

• Segmented controls with sliding pill replace the old dropdowns
• Fixed the "jumping pill" on popup reopen
• New gradient shield icon, desaturates when shields are off

Incognito

• Manifest now declares split mode (no state leak between profiles)
• Popup shows a dismissable one-click hint to enable it

YouTube

• Catch-all JSON.parse hook for ad fields the fetch/XHR hooks miss
• Mid-roll ads get muted, sped up to 16x, and seeked to end — original state restored after

Twitch

• The custom Twitch ad-blocker script was temporarily removed in this release to be reworked and added back in a future version
• Generic filter-list and cosmetic blocking still apply to twitch.tv in the meantime

Misc

• Dynamic DNR rules re-sync on service worker startup
• Removed dead code

Install

Download brave-shields-extension-v1.0.1.zip, extract, go to chrome://extensions, enable Developer Mode, click "Load unpacked", select the extracted folder.

v1.0.0

Brave Shields as a standalone Chromium extension.

Works on Chrome, Edge, Arc, Vivaldi, Opera, Thorium — anything Chromium-based.

What's included

• 15k+ DNR rules from EasyList, EasyPrivacy, uBlock filters, and Peter Lowe's list
• ~4,800 cosmetic CSS rulesets via the adblock-rust WASM engine
• YouTube ad blocking — fetch/XHR interception strips ad data from player API responses
• Twitch ad blocking — intercepts GraphQL ad operations and strips stitched ad segments from HLS playlists
• Per-site toggle (shields on/off), ad block mode (standard/aggressive/off), cookie blocking
• Per-tab stats with badge count, persisted across service worker suspensions

Install

Download brave-shields-extension-v1.0.0.zip, extract, go to chrome://extensions, enable Developer Mode, click "Load unpacked", select the extracted folder.

Recommended browser

If you're looking for a clean Chromium browser to pair this with, check out Thorium — a performance-focused Chromium fork with no bloat. Available for macOS, Windows, and Windows on ARM.