The mainstream browsers allow us to manually delete browsing data “newer than x days/weeks/months”.
This means that the most recent cookies/history/cache are discarded, instead of the oldest data. However, the newest data is typically the most useful and we’d much rather sacrifice the oldest data (who cares about cookies from last year). The mainstream browsers are making it unnecessarily uncomfortable for us to get rid of old browsing data.
Thus, a much more usable functionality would be “delete browsing data older than x days/weeks/months”.
The user should have the option to manually trigger deletion or to have it auto-executed regularly. Besides, the setting should be configurable (e.g., only delete browsing and download history, but keep cookies and site settings … or even set deletion intervals by sub-type).
Ideally, this functionality would exist across all platforms (desktop / mobile).
I’ve not seen this picked up anywhere, but there’s been some traction on Reddit (i.e., other people showing interest in this feature). Let me know please if you see other discussions.
I would like a feature similar to Firefox, where no history is kept (if turned on.) The only thing is recent tabs, which you can cntrl+shift+t back open and clear on browser exit.
Good idea. I think it makes sense both ways: sometimes I may want to wipe traces of recent activity, sometimes I just want to clean leftover junk – in which case, I’d like to remove old stuff instead.
For the cache, that should happen automatically when it’s full.
On a side note, I did not see an option to set its maximum size as there is in other browsers – I may have missed it though.
Cookies are an exception, in that they are often used to keep login data or other information that I may not want to wipe inadvertently.
In the Brave settings, I see options for “Sites that can always use cookies”, sites for which to “Always clear cookies when windows are closed”, and “Sites that can never use cookies”.
If implementing “Delete browsing data older than X” I would also add a section for “Sites that will never have their cookies wiped automatically” – or some better wording to that effect.
Or maybe the “Sites that can always use cookies” would also have their cookies protected from automatic deletion, too keep things simple.