Brave browser CEO apologizes for automatically adding affiliate links to cryptoc

[bbc.reporter]

This is the type of act that causes everyone outside of this community to judge that everything in the cryptospace is a scam. This is very embarassing because it was reported by a mainstream website and a very deceiving act from a for privacy browser.


Brendan Eich, founder of Brave

Brave, the open-source browser designed to prioritize privacy by blocking third-party ads and trackers, is facing criticism from users for redirecting URLs from cryptocurrency companies to affiliate links that Brave profits from, Decrypt reported.

A Twitter user spotted the redirect when he typed “binance.us” into the Brave search bar, and the browser autocompleted it to “binance.us/en?ref=35089877.” Both URLs go to the same page, but the affiliate link at the end can be used to track users and generate income. Many websites, including Vox Media and The Verge, use affiliate links, but most are transparent about doing so.

Read in full https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21283769/brave-browser-affiliate-links-crypto-privacy-ceo-apology

[batang_bitcoin]

They should maintain what their browser is offering. No need to take advantage of people that are using the browser because they are trusting for being it.
Brave became quickly popular because of the attributes that it has. And if they will not correct this or will tolerate this act again in the future, they are near to their death, the same as the other browsers that has low number of users.

[semobo]

A Twitter user spotted the redirect when he typed “binance.us” into the Brave search bar, and the browser autocompleted it to “binance.us/en?ref=35089877.” Both URLs go to the same page, but the affiliate link at the end can be used to track users and generate income. Many websites, including Vox Media and The Verge, use affiliate links, but most are transparent about doing so.[/i]

Read in full https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21283769/brave-browser-affiliate-links-crypto-privacy-ceo-apology

In the recent days we can find lot of shady activities are going on brave browser so we shouldn't call them as privacy browser anymore.How these things happens without their knowledge? So they are intentionally trying to track the people and their income level so they can sell the user data and make money just like other popular browser but they added this on their user agreement but saying privacy but tracking user is something shady.

[meanwords]

There isn't really anything malicious here in the article though, it doesn't categorized cryptocurrency as evil either. But it was really huge to see that a browser that blocks ads and prevent tracks are themselves putting ads and tracking users using an affiliate link. Maybe it wasn't suppose to work that way? maybe there was a bug in their code?

[Tipstar]

I don't think a bug would generate a ref link. We could have ignored it if it were from any other services but the service in context is brave browser which selling point remains in the blocking of ads and trackers. That's a larger risk made for small profit. If they want that as a source of revenue, they should have let know users about it and provide an option to choose their ref links.

[oriontab]

It is not so nice if brave browser loses its unique feature ie privacy , Something that chrome and other popular browsers have failed to offer users. I hope this gets fixed. Going with Onion browser is still your best bet for online anonymity

[Chuky92]

Seriously for a privacy browser like Brave, this is discouraging because most people won't fail to read unnecessary meanings to it. First Brave is a privacy browser which has grown massively as a result of that, now slightly going back on what they stand for means they want to go down both in number of users and in reputation; people don't like being exploited and that's the fact. However, for the CEO to apologize, it is good of him to own his mistakes and probably it might change the negativity created already.

[bbc.reporter]

There isn't really anything malicious here in the article though, it doesn't categorized cryptocurrency as evil either. But it was really huge to see that a browser that blocks ads and prevent tracks are themselves putting ads and tracking users using an affiliate link. Maybe it wasn't suppose to work that way? maybe there was a bug in their code?

You should read the article. The development team of Brave placed their affiliate link to profit from their users without informing them. This is a behavior similar to scammers.

[meanwords]

There isn't really anything malicious here in the article though, it doesn't categorized cryptocurrency as evil either. But it was really huge to see that a browser that blocks ads and prevent tracks are themselves putting ads and tracking users using an affiliate link. Maybe it wasn't suppose to work that way? maybe there was a bug in their code?

You should read the article. The development team of Brave placed their affiliate link to profit from their users without informing them. This is a behavior similar to scammers.

I did read the article. You probably did not understand but my point was pertaining to the article, that the article didn't wrote this in a malicious way and they also didn't portray Bitcoin as bad but it was the browser who did.

[IamAltcoinfan]

I don’t see it’s a big accuse some how the platform also needs to generate revenue . Brave is one of the best private browser also it is one of the recognised project in crypto space . If they don’t generate revenue from other resource finally it end upto selling to big companies then it will Be no more open source .

[alicea]

I don't for one second think that it was a mistake or bug it was added for a reason to fatten their pockets using affiliate links. It was really unexpected from the company whose selling point was to block website trackers.

[Yogee]

There isn't really anything malicious here in the article though, it doesn't categorized cryptocurrency as evil either. But it was really huge to see that a browser that blocks ads and prevent tracks are themselves putting ads and tracking users using an affiliate link. Maybe it wasn't suppose to work that way? maybe there was a bug in their code?

You should read the article. The development team of Brave placed their affiliate link to profit from their users without informing them. This is a behavior similar to scammers.

I did read the article. You probably did not understand but my point was pertaining to the article, that the article didn't wrote this in a malicious way and they also didn't portray Bitcoin as bad but it was the browser who did.

You should keep in mind that the browser itself is meant to generate revenue for the people or company behind Brave. There was no bug and they originally intended to put their referral link in the code without the user's knowledge. They were simply caught and heavily criticized. So the only smart way  for them to get out of that mess is to apologize.

The writer of that article doesn't have to present what happened in malicious way. His job is to present the fact that Brave injected ref links to profit from their unsuspecting users. That supports bbc.reporter's statement "This is the type of act that causes everyone outside of this community to judge that everything in the cryptospace is a scam".

[hd49728]

Apology?

Brave browser grows very fast and caught attention of community because many people think Brave browser operates more smoothly and lighter than Chrome browser. They also believe Brave browser can give them private browsing. After many months of continuous growth, Brave browswer shows it fails to provide and maintain private browsing for users.

The latest shady technical action to automatically and arbitrarily add affiliate links are unacceptable. It seriously destroys the reputation and reliability of Brave browser further and faster. I won't use Brave browswer in the future and don't care what their CEO talks and whatsoever technical improvements will be made.

[meanwords]

There isn't really anything malicious here in the article though, it doesn't categorized cryptocurrency as evil either. But it was really huge to see that a browser that blocks ads and prevent tracks are themselves putting ads and tracking users using an affiliate link. Maybe it wasn't suppose to work that way? maybe there was a bug in their code?

You should read the article. The development team of Brave placed their affiliate link to profit from their users without informing them. This is a behavior similar to scammers.

I did read the article. You probably did not understand but my point was pertaining to the article, that the article didn't wrote this in a malicious way and they also didn't portray Bitcoin as bad but it was the browser who did.

You should keep in mind that the browser itself is meant to generate revenue for the people or company behind Brave. There was no bug and they originally intended to put their referral link in the code without the user's knowledge. They were simply caught and heavily criticized. So the only smart way  for them to get out of that mess is to apologize.

The writer of that article doesn't have to present what happened in malicious way. His job is to present the fact that Brave injected ref links to profit from their unsuspecting users. That supports bbc.reporter's statement "This is the type of act that causes everyone outside of this community to judge that everything in the cryptospace is a scam".

I know. I did not say that this incident of the Brave Browser doesn't make support that statement "This is the type of act that causes everyone outside of this community to judge that everything in the cryptospace is a scam". I only said that the article or the article writer did not portray cryptocurrency as bad or malicious, they only reported something that the Brave Browser did.

I do not support Brave Browser for what they did and it is indeed a bad move for them to do this.

[Yaunfitda]

Damage has been done already, I don't know what kind of publicity that Brave needs to patch up things with crypto community with this mishaps, and it's really embarrassing and I'm sure they have lost some customers here. I also doubt that they can be forgotten by the community, and as much we appreciate their admittance for their mistakes, they look very suspicious already and it could defeat their purpose to compete with Google, unfortunately.

[Juggy777]

This is the type of act that causes everyone outside of this community to judge that everything in the cryptospace is a scam. This is very embarassing because it was reported by a mainstream website and a very deceiving act from a for privacy browser.


Brendan Eich, founder of Brave

Brave, the open-source browser designed to prioritize privacy by blocking third-party ads and trackers, is facing criticism from users for redirecting URLs from cryptocurrency companies to affiliate links that Brave profits from, Decrypt reported.

A Twitter user spotted the redirect when he typed “binance.us” into the Brave search bar, and the browser autocompleted it to “binance.us/en?ref=35089877.” Both URLs go to the same page, but the affiliate link at the end can be used to track users and generate income. Many websites, including Vox Media and The Verge, use affiliate links, but most are transparent about doing so.

Read in full https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21283769/brave-browser-affiliate-links-crypto-privacy-ceo-apology

@bbc.reporter this was reported on another forum a while ago, and that’s an seo forum and you’ll be surprised to know that most of the guys were happy to allow Brave browser to earn commissions from them, because it gives them more privacy and security than google. Also if you consider this scam then what will you say about google who broke it’s own promise of never showing ads on homepage?, or the fact that an extension which was downloaded 32 million times on google stole people’s data.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/24/google-breaks-promise-banner-ads-search-results

https://wccftech.com/google-chrome-extensions-with-32-million-downloads-found-to-be-stealing-user-data/

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/4/18249623/brave-browser-choice-chrome-vivaldi-replacement-chromium

[NeuroticFish]

theverge.com/2020/6/8/

As you can see from what I've kept from the post, this is one month old news. This came at very few days after the ref links "feature" blew up in their face.
Indeed, many will keep Brave for the few cents they may be earning. For many others it was an obvious next step after KYC in a privacy browser.

Since I was not into BAT this was for me the point I've lost confidence in them and apologies won't fix that. So for me it was an eye opener.
Then I've researched for something better than Chrome and Brave and returned to good old Firefox, which is better and safer than the two and it's more robust, better made and doesn't lack important features like Brave does.

[bigcash2011]

This is the type of act that causes everyone outside of this community to judge that everything in the cryptospace is a scam. This is very embarassing because it was reported by a mainstream website and a very deceiving act from a for privacy browser.


Brendan Eich, founder of Brave

Brave, the open-source browser designed to prioritize privacy by blocking third-party ads and trackers, is facing criticism from users for redirecting URLs from cryptocurrency companies to affiliate links that Brave profits from, Decrypt reported.

A Twitter user spotted the redirect when he typed “binance.us” into the Brave search bar, and the browser autocompleted it to “binance.us/en?ref=35089877.” Both URLs go to the same page, but the affiliate link at the end can be used to track users and generate income. Many websites, including Vox Media and The Verge, use affiliate links, but most are transparent about doing so.

Read in full https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21283769/brave-browser-affiliate-links-crypto-privacy-ceo-apology

Although almost all of the media outlets dot hat but brave being a browser should not have done that i mean it is just a very big platform and it has its ad ecosystem and revenue generation so why would they even be looking to capture affiliate income which would be pennies considering the scope of brave ecosystem itself, anyways we should give them the chance to correct themselves now.

[kindbtc]

It could have been that some developer or some of the employee of the brave network have took advantage of the platform and tried to embed his/her referral links, we know greed is everywhere and it can come in any form but now if brave is officially accepting it and they have announced to make the browser link free then i think there is no need to create an issue just give them a chance for correction.

[torrantz]

an apology will do nothing anyway, it doesn't redo the fact that privacy in this browser is just empty talk. they have great potential but unfortunately they are destroyed by this one act, some people might be ignorant and keep using this browser but not for me anymore. browser is free and switching between browser is as easy as clicking "import" in the setting and I will surely do that.