I'd like to respond, as a developer on the Brave project. We don't simply replace ads with other ads. The entire ad landscape has been co-opted by those who aim to collect as much data about you as is possible.
Over 600 million devices were running some form of ad-blocking software in 2017, and that was an increase of 30% from the year prior. This number keeps growing, year over year. Something has to be done.
Users who come to Brave are already blocking ads. They understand the risk involved in letting third-party software collect information about them, their person, their browsing habits, and more. Further, the risk of drive-by downloads is on the rise (or the growing popularity of crypto-jacking).
Brave blocks ads and trackers for safety and privacy reasons. But we are not so naive to miss the impact this has on well-meaning publishers. This is why we created the User Growth Pool, and the Brave Payments system. Every month we pour hundreds of thousands of dollars back into the pockets of content creators by way of BAT (Basic Attention Token) grants, distributed freely to users of the Brave browser.
But grants won't last forever, something sustainable has be erected in place of the incumbent digital advertising system. This is where Brave Ads comings into play.
For users who opt in, Brave can deliver better quality ads, without the risk of personal data leakage. We do this by using local machine-learning to understand the user better, and making local decisions as to which ads should or should not be shown, and when (the user controls all of this). Furthermore, the user gets 70% of the ad revenue for browser-private ads.
When you consider the amount of money lost to digital ad fraud each year (over $20,000,000,000 I believe), you can see how the Brave system would lead to a much better, and more sustainable future for the web.
We're not simply replacing ads. We're rescuing an industry.
Replacing ads with our own would indeed be pretty bad; but we don't do that. I think the underlying emotional response you're seeing (which does exist with some) is based on what others say Brave is doing, rather than what Brave is actually doing. Help us correct the misinformation
The blocking of ads and trackers has been taking place for years; long before Brave came along (in it was happening when Netscape released the NPAPI back in the mid-90s).
Content Creators and Publishers, who make the Web enjoyable for us, rely on third-party advertising models which engage in data-harvesting and attention-auctioning without explicit user consent.
Brave helps protect users from harmful ads and trackers (which not only harvest data, but deliver malicious bits in return), while offering a model whereby users can anonymously support publishers by way of privacy-respecting ads.
Brave Ads are matched on-device, using local access to data. When you view an ad, 70% of the associated revenue is sent to your cryptographically-secured wallet. As you browse the Web, verified content creators can receive support (either actively or passively) from those rewards.
Users are safe. Creators are supported. That's Brave.
The problem is more nuanced than "they block someone elses ads, and display their own," though. Modern digital ads (since their start in the early-mid 90s, have been about data collection. In 2009, online advertising was further adapted to include a process known as Real-Time Bidding, where users are auctioned off (usually in less than 100ms) for each ad-slot on each page they visit. The ad industry has been transforming more and more into a system of _surveillance capitalism_.
These changes to the digital advertising industry have driven mass adoption of ad and content blockers. In 2015, more than 500 million users were blocking trackers, and ads/content that relied on them. This protects user privacy and security, but hurts the sustainability of the Web we all know and love. Brave aims to deliver a fully developed solution.
Brave's model (which is predicated on user-consent, and privacy-by-default) seeks to fully-solve the aforementioned problems. We offer advertising without compromising user trust, and better value to advertisers/publishers during the process. Perhaps most importantly is that Brave Rewards brings disillusioned users who once ran ad and tracker blockers back into the fold.
See my later edits to those comments, wherein I shared an example from another user in this thread accusing Brave of in-situ ad-replacement. That is usually the claim being made (first seen in 2016, and refusing to die since).
Brave is definitely working hard to replace that which doesn't work on the Web, advertising being one such thing. We're pushing for a model that is based on consent, equity, and an a priori commitment to privacy (don't touch the user's data). If we can successfully replace (however you wish to interpret that) Google with such a model, then I'm content
Your scenario doesn't reflect how Brave's model works at all - it just reflects various misconceptions on your part.
Brave does not replace publisher ads with their own.
Brave does not block first party ads. Google's search ads display. Facebook's ads display. Twitter's ads display.
Brave does block other ads by default, and as a user agent, it's reflecting the valid, ethical choices of the user not to load the untrustworthy content and scripts from these poorly-coded, user-hostile third party ad networks.
If a user opts-in to Brave's ad ecosystem, then they've also made a decision about what content funding model they want to support.
There are many browsers out there, but till now there's really only been one privacy-invading ad model.
Now we have not just another browser, but another ad model which respects privacy, and after all we've learned about the current ad-tech ecosystem I'd prioritise user agency over all other considerations.
If the primacy of user agency begins to take hold, then the market will adapt and survive and even thrive within this new model.
> Brave will replace blocked ads with its own ads, taking a 15% cut of revenues.
> In practice, Brave just sounds like a cash-grab. Brave isn't just a glorified adblocker: after removing ads from a webpage, Brave then inserts its own programmatic ads. It sounds like these ads will be filled by ad networks that work with Brave directly, and Brave will somehow police these ads to make sure they're less invasive/malevolent than the original ads that were stripped out. In exchange, Brave will take a 15 percent cut of the ad revenue. Instead of using tracking cookies that follow you around the Internet, Brave will use your local browsing history to target ads.
Ads are here to stay unless human nature about paying for shit changes. Brave's approach while still having ads may nor may not be worse than FireFox who receive the majority of their revenue by partnering with search engines, who, y'know, mine your data and dont pay for it
Brave isn't capturing user data, and the "replacement" topic requires more nuanced coverage. Internet users have been installing ad-and-content blockers long before Brave (when Netscape launched the Plugin API back in 1996 or so, ad-blockers began to appear almost immediately).
Brave is rescuing the Web from a block-alone response, which starves content creators of much-needed support. Brave also increases the potential for support by giving users without disposable income (and those with disposable income) the ability to support those who make the Web enjoyable. We do this in a manner which is low-friction, and anonymous too (thanks to the Basic Attention Token).
Brave has introduced a model that understands the security and privacy reasons for blocking third-party ads and trackers. But Brave doesn't stop there (as is the case with popular blockers); it also aims to address the issue of content sustainability online.
Ads are being blocked, already, on hundreds of millions of devices. Brave users are usually former users of ad-blocking extensions in Chrome and Firefox. As such, these users were beyond the advertising system, far out of reach of Advertisers or Publishers. Brave changes this.
Brave brings security and privacy minded folks back into the system by offering a better deal for all parties. Users get paid without giving up data, Advertisers get better value for their spend. And Publishers don't have to weigh their sites down with third-party scripts to monetize content.
1. Brave won't "sell ads", that's not how it works. Marketers buy space for ads and spend to create the ads themselves. Websites or publishers sell space for ads, sometimes directly to brands/agencies. If ads use no tracking and host the ads' images and other assets on a non-blocked domain, no problem.
2. Where we propose to do better is with "indirect" or programmatic ads. These are so out of control, publishers make money from them but disclaim responsibility when a piece of ransomware malvertisement places in the offered space. We aim to put tracker-free, sandboxed ads in these spaces and share revenue (equal shares to the user and to Brave: 15%) with the bulk of the revenue (55% direct, 70% in total per the default settings) to the website.
We're thus working to align incentives in the system that currently work against the user's interest.
We also support pure ad/tracker blocking, if you prefer.
On top of either mode, we're buildling an anonymous system for micropayments as well as aggregated ad metrics, so no one can re-identify a Brave user from a revenue stream.
Of course, we're not yet doing anything more than blocking all third party / indirect ads and trackers. To get better user-aligned revenue models in place, we'll need to scale up and win over some top publishers for trial/testing purposes.
So if you want the fastest (native code wins in perf and mem use) browser that blocks ads by default, I hope you will give Brave a try.
Ads aren't inherently bad, but modern digital advertising has been co-opted by bad actors. Brave offers an ad-free experience by default; this is necessary for your privacy and safety online.
But users are increasingly more aware that protecting themselves from harmful ads also means stripping their favorite creators of support. This is where Brave steps in to offer a complete solution, rather than the partial solution of "just block and forget".
Brave Ads are opt-in, entirely private (data never leaves your device), and pay the user 70% of the ad revenue. By default, that 70% will flow out to the sites/properties you visit on a monthly basis. If you like, you can choose to keep some (or all) of it for yourself.
So we don't necessarily want a Web full of ads. We want a Web full of empowered users who have control over their data and attention.
Paying uses to see ads isn't the solution in and of itself; an increasing number of users are opting out of ads for safety reasons. Others for aesthetic reasons. The solution is multi-fold, and we realize this.
Brave's model creates a better system (consent-based) which protects the user's data (on their device, with no leaking), cuts out complexity (which reduces fraud and middle-men), and in turn is able to put lost revenue back in the hands of publishers. Beyond this, Brave is able to bring the user into the fold, as their attention is the commodity being bought.
There have been some exciting developments in this space before us, but none that stuck. While we laud those who came before us, we understand that the problem was never fully tackled. That's what we are doing with Brave.
Except it does. It has the functionality to do BOTH.
The tagline of giving the option to either disable ads or replace ads is to provide a way to enjoy an ad-free experience or to receive only optimized advertisements.
A big reason some users dislike ads isn't because of their entire existance but rather their tendency as of late to be malware-ridden or cause drops in webpage performance. These are the things that cause some users to enable ad-blockers, and Brave is the only way I've heard of that has pushed the envelope of a BETTER ad experience.
From their blog, the first is a great introduction to what Brave is about[1], as well as their response to an attack on their ad-replacement ideology[2].
[The user interface] shows the major choices that Brave enables:
You’re game to try our default mode of operation, for a better ad-supported Web. Just leave the Replace Ads item checked. This is the default mode of operation. We insert ads after blocking without hurting page load speed, and those ads will support the sites you browse. We choose ads based on browser-private user data with no remote tracking — not even by our servers.
You want to block all ads and trackers, but you’re not sure about our plan to insert better ads with high performance and privacy. You can do this with Brave by checking Block Ads. We want you on board even if you’re just blocking everything.
You’d like to try Brave without ad blocking or replacing, to get whatever ads and trackers you would experience in other browsers. Check Allow Ads and Tracking. We still protect you with HTTPS Everywhere and other defense by default.
Just to back up your (currently downvoted) comment:
"[Brave] browser blocks ads and website trackers. Currently, the company is developing a feature that allows users to opt in to receiving ads sold by Brave Software in place of the blocked ads. Brave intends to pay content publishers 55% of the replaced ad revenue. Brave Software, ad partners, and browser users would each be allocated 15% of the revenue. Users could donate their revenue share to bloggers and other providers of web content through micropayments. The browser claims to improve online privacy by sharing less data with advertising customers, but will target web ads by analyzing users' anonymized browsing history." -- Wikipedia
I consider this ad-replacement scheme extraordinarily scummy. It sounds like the plan is to use protection racket strategies to get the target publishers to buy in.
I don't particularly like ads but I don't have a problem with the idea of ad substitution. This isn't very different from ad injection that WiFi hotspot and other captive portal operators do. For me, it is more about privacy than not seeing ads (provided the ads are not annoying and don't interfere with my viewing content).
Now for Brave, their incentive is to maximize profits just like any other ad broker. This is not necessarily aligned with my interests as a user. I get their theory, I just worry about how this works out in practice. To trust Brave, I have to believe they will never get greedy and never relax their privacy or security standards, even if these interfere with profit-making. That's a big ask. I would be tempted, too.
I also have concerns about 'malvertising', which has affected many high-profile sites who employ world-class security teams. They haven't been able to stop malware infecting their users via ads.
Admittedly this whole comment is pure FUD but that's just it - I am not certain Brave is the answer, and the easiest thing for me to do is keep using an open-source browser with an ad-blocker. Bonus, I'm using NoScript and have a gigabit FTTH connection and let me tell you, the web is lightning fast!
Good luck Brave team, but I don't think I am your target demographic.
Yeah in my view there are 2 main problems with ads. One is as you say - collecting data profiles of people that are shared around with no respect for the user's preferences. The other is they are an unpleasant experience (resource hogs, obscure the content, etc). In my understanding, brave actually tries addressing both. For the issue of data collection, I believe its goal is to eventually enable (if it hasn't already) local profiling, so that you can still build profiles, but none of the data ever leaves your machine (and presumably they'd allow you to disable this feature - also it's open source so worst case you could always hack it out). For the user experience, since the ads (if you enable them) are served locally, they don't incur the same level of performance penalty as normal ads. Or (I believe) you can also just buy bat separate without ever enabling ads and use those to contribute to content creators (this is probably how I'd use it). I might have gotten a few details wrong but I think the overall direction is definitely worth exploring.
As for blocking the existing ads until the unlikely future where the brave style of ads becomes so common that the ads as we know them today entirely disappear - that's definitely a valid question. It doesn't help to be on the brave model if websites are still able to collect your data anyway. I think brave might have some special features helping obscure the data but I'm not too knowledgeable on that.
Brave does not replace (meaning, display in-situ) third-party ads. Those are blocked, as you stated, for ethical and security reasons. Brave offers an opt-in feature of the browser called 'Brave Rewards' and 'Brave Ads'. This feature enables users to opt-in to ad-notifications (displayed as native prompts on the device; not shown on the pages you visit). Ads are displayed on every 4th new tab page for participating users (again, no ads on publisher properties). The user consents to these, receives 70% of the revenue for their attention, and sets threshold limitations for how many ads can be displayed in a given period. Brave has never replaced ads on pages; that would be highly unethical.
Brave blocks harmful third-party ads and trackers. This is a security and privacy matter, as these types of ads are actually small scripts/apps which run in the context of your local machine.
As malignant as third-party ads have become, they do generate revenue for content creators. As such, Brave didn't stop at "block, and let the creators figure it out." We did the work to propose a new approach to supporting content creators; one which doesn't cost the user their data/privacy in the process.
In Brave, user's have to opt-in to Ad Notifications. When they do, they set the limits (up to 10/hr) on how many ad notifications can be displayed. Matching happens locally, so the user's data never leaves their device. And 70% of each ad's revenue is allocated to the user's anonymous wallet, which can flow out to the sites they visit (and proportional to the amount of time they spend on those sites) each month.
This is indeed a replacement model; we cannot continue down the path we've been taking for 25 years. One which treats users like products, harvesting their data at every turn, and auctioning them off to a sea of third parties. There's a better way, and we're just seeing the start of it with the Brave model.
You are misinformed. Brave does not "[replace] ads with their own" and we never have. We are working with publishers to do private/anonymous ads which pay them 70% and the user 15% of gross revenue, but these are not out yet.
We already pay users 70% of revenue for ads that go in the user's own space, not in any publisher slot.
Whether user or publisher ads, in Brave neither kind uses any tracking. Matching is done locally against an objective (same for all users in a region on a given day) catalog; views and clicks confirmed using a Privacy Pass like "blind signature" protocol. No user identifier or linkability among events on any server, even ours.
If you acted on incorrect information, I hope you'll stop repeating it and give Brave a try. Thanks.
Over 600 million devices were running some form of ad-blocking software in 2017, and that was an increase of 30% from the year prior. This number keeps growing, year over year. Something has to be done.
Users who come to Brave are already blocking ads. They understand the risk involved in letting third-party software collect information about them, their person, their browsing habits, and more. Further, the risk of drive-by downloads is on the rise (or the growing popularity of crypto-jacking).
Brave blocks ads and trackers for safety and privacy reasons. But we are not so naive to miss the impact this has on well-meaning publishers. This is why we created the User Growth Pool, and the Brave Payments system. Every month we pour hundreds of thousands of dollars back into the pockets of content creators by way of BAT (Basic Attention Token) grants, distributed freely to users of the Brave browser.
But grants won't last forever, something sustainable has be erected in place of the incumbent digital advertising system. This is where Brave Ads comings into play.
For users who opt in, Brave can deliver better quality ads, without the risk of personal data leakage. We do this by using local machine-learning to understand the user better, and making local decisions as to which ads should or should not be shown, and when (the user controls all of this). Furthermore, the user gets 70% of the ad revenue for browser-private ads.
When you consider the amount of money lost to digital ad fraud each year (over $20,000,000,000 I believe), you can see how the Brave system would lead to a much better, and more sustainable future for the web.
We're not simply replacing ads. We're rescuing an industry.
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