What's old is new again: Brave Browser is stuffing affiliate ref codes

GiraffeBurgersAndFries

GiraffeBurgersAndFries

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The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

Step 1. Take an open-source browser
Step 2. Add some open-source ad/tracker blocking in by default
Step 3. Add in some ref stuffing
Step 4. Market, market, market it in an era where folks are becoming more privacy-conscious
Step 5. Now you have 50m monthly active users you can eat off of!

Eich sure is clever! ;)

Kind of reminds me of that kid who created the Freedom Phone. Take an off-the-shelf phone, pre-load it with free apps, mark its price way up and sell it to the unsuspecting. Maybe it stuffs too? :D

Take care BHW

PS: TIL DigitalPoint is still alive :p
 
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Not surprising at all. As a rule of thumb, anyone which purports focus on 'privacy' as a selling point should be avoided. That's become so cliche now it's all but lost meaning.
 
Thanks for the heads up. Had no idea. Was running a Brave without all the crypto and ads stuff enabled. Have just uninstalled it and gond back to FireFox, this time with uBlock Origin installed (sorry BHW no ad viewing support from me, just my annual fees).
 
I remember i read somewhere that the "privacy-focused" search engine DuckDuckGo is inseting their affiliate codes/links to any amazon affiliate link you click, meaning they earn comission if you click ony any amazon affiliate website.
So much for the so called privacy these days.
 
I use many browsers for different purposes. Its better to spread out than have to do everything with one browser.
Brave - I like the Tor Browser.
Firefox - I like the profile sandboxes.
Chromium - I use it for White Hat stuff. (Easy G Captcha passes with logged in G Profile)
Chrome - I use it for add-ons and plugins from chrome store.
There are a few more I use for testing purposes.
 
wannabegoodatseo said:
please let me know how to do on Chrome
Click to expand...

Goto Settings in Chrome.
Click "Privacy and security"
Click "Cookies and other site data."
Turn on "Clear cookies and site data when you close all windows."
 
nSnoopy said:
I remember i read somewhere that the "privacy-focused" search engine DuckDuckGo is inseting their affiliate codes/links to any amazon affiliate link you click, meaning they earn comission if you click ony any amazon affiliate website.
So much for the so called privacy these days.
Click to expand...
Not only was DuckDuckGo inserting links they were also censoring certain kinds of search. All these new guys are as sneaky as the big guys they criticize.
When they get a good following like the big G, they would do the same or even worse.
 
This is old news, the article was written in 2020 and those features are long gone,
brave is still far better and faster then Chrome or Firefox.
 
There are a few main browser engines that are still in use today:

Webkit (Safari)
Blink (Chromium, everything Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, Brave)
Gecko (Firefox)
Goanna (Pale Moon, K-Meleon)
(There's also Flow, but it's still in beta)

Everything else is just a variation on a theme. Regarding Brave being more 'private', its no more private than Firefox + UBlock Origin.
 
qwerty_123 said:
Not surprising at all. As a rule of thumb, anyone which purports focus on 'privacy' as a selling point should be avoided. That's become so cliche now it's all but lost meaning.
Click to expand...
Now, the best products for privacy don't really advertise themselves :D
 
JollyRock said:
This is old news, the article was written in 2020 and those features are long gone,
brave is still far better and faster then Chrome or Firefox.
Click to expand...

I am not sure how much to trust a browser which has been caught with it's pants down more than once. And whose CEO vehemently berates any user trying to bring this up and constantly quotes the likes of Nietzsche.

Other browser's track you - rewriting affiliate URLs is a different ball game altogether.

And these were just the things that were "caught".
 
who even uses anything other than chrome for their main browser??

i still use brave alot, but its whatever if they hijack my links
 
I would give referral to brave browser which gives me few brave rewards back and i use it alot, rather than give it to those Youtube or any other influencers mentioning their referral link in description & through out the whole video + asking me to follow them, like the video, hit the bell and whistle, share with my friends, clean their house, park their car, carry their bag because it is good for me. " i will get another chance to watch another video in between their ads" and every one will be happy.

Brave is my default browser.
 
BlogPro said:
I am not sure how much to trust a browser which has been caught with it's pants down more than once. And whose CEO vehemently berates any user trying to bring this up and constantly quotes the likes of Nietzsche.

Other browser's track you - rewriting affiliate URLs is a different ball game altogether.

And these were just the things that were "caught".
Click to expand...
So maybe disable JavaScript as well as he is the creator of this language, he also co-founded Mozilla, he is not just a "random".
Yes he does have some right wing views (which is why he got fired from Mozilla), but he is not some thug.

And the browser is open source, even the affiliates URL injection was open source, I am sure that people already checked the source code multiple times after this incident,
so we do know if there more things into it, and there not.

Also everything is better then using Chrome that for sure, maybe Firefox with some tweaks is ok but its too slow and probably less secure and updated.
The only alternative I can think of is Safari, Apple doesn't have the incentive to sell your data and it is for sure not as bad as Chrome, but it is not open source.
Ungoogled chromium is also a good idea, but I haven't found a good source with the latest updates being released fast + auto-update and everything. (Please link it to me if you do have one)
 
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