Features controlled by Shields

[WIP]

Features controlled by Shields

Brave Shields is Brave's primary layer of privacy protection against websites.

On Desktop

The Shields toggle controls the following privacy features on Desktop:

Feature	Description	Toggleable per-site?	Toggleable globally?
Ad & tracker blocking	Blocks ads & trackers. Aggressive mode blocks first-party ads & trackers in addition to third-party	Yes	Yes
Upgrade connections to HTTPS	Upgrades connections to HTTPS. Strict mode shows interstitial if upgrade fails	Yes	Yes
Block scripts	Block JavaScript from executing on the page. Selectively allow executing them	Yes	Yes
Block fingerprinting	Applies fingerprinting protections on a page, see more details	Yes (can also toggle individual API protections)	Yes
Block cookies	Control third-party cookie blocking	Yes	Yes
Forget me when I close this site	Clears all storage set by a site when last tab for a site is closed, see more details	Yes	Yes
Referrer stripping	Cap referrer headers, see more details	No, but controllable via Block cookies	No, but controllable via Block cookies
Query parameter stripping	Remove query string parameters commonly used for tracking, see more details	No	No

Features NOT controlled by Shields (but should be)

• Global Privacy Control (GPC): see how to disable
• De-AMP: controllable globally via Settings > Privacy and security
• Auto-redirect tracking URLs (or debouncing): controllable globally via Settings > Privacy and security
• Reduce language fingerprinting: controllable globally via Settings > Privacy and security. See more details.

Features NOT controlled by Shields (and cannot be)

• Everything we use Chromium flags to disable, since these are global and require a browser restart.