6 ms·

Brave’s browser has been autocompleting websites with referral codes

57 points by rfcenturies 6y ago

RNCTX 6y ago
If it’s associated with a cryptocurrency, it’s a scam. Just a matter of uncovering the details.
- dang 6y ago
  Please don't post unsubstantive comments to HN, or shallow dismissals of other people's work. Maybe you don't owe cryptocurrency better, but you owe this community better if you're participating in it. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - Daishiman 6y ago
    He's not wrong though.
    - dang 6y ago
      A comment needn't be wrong to be bad.
- Proven 6y ago
  Haha, that's a good point and rarely wrong. No option to disable search autocomplete and whatever else they do that's yet to be discovered. The only anti-feature they allow to be disabled is the shitcoin thing, but perhaps because it'd probably be federal crime not to.
pull_my_finger 6y ago
Brave seems to push the line as to what is acceptable ways to monetize the browser. Every time they will just call it a mistake and "fix" it, but why do they keep trying to push the limit? They had the "safe" ads replacing websites ads. They had the "shadow accounts" wrt the tip thing. Now they're trying to sneak in referral codes. How many "oopsies" do you get in good faith?
- BrendanEich 6y ago
  https://twitter.com/brendaneich/status/1269512276605759489?s=21 https://twitter.com/brendaneich/status/1269512276605759489?s... Et seq. Stop repeating falsehoods.
  - pull_my_finger 6y ago
    Well that's not my twitter (nice dox attempt) but since that poster didn't know the history and is here on HN, I've got some links wrt ad replacement [1] and the shadow accounts + tipping where you don't know you aren't even notified you received money until you break a certain threshold and if you don't claim it within a certain amount of time it gets "recycled" back into the growth pool [2] conversation. I did mention that Brave "fixes" these issues when the public inevitably freaks out, but it's still worth noting the pattern of intent. [1] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/01/mozilla-co-founder-unveils-brave-a-web-browser-that-blocks-ads-by-default/?comments=1 https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/01/mozil... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18734999 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18734999
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
npiit 6y ago
People, especially non-technical people, still don't ask themselves, how can a company be profitable from a browser? Especially if the browser itself is 100% made by another company but the license permits to be used and rebranded by others. Brave browser is nothing but skin and some config modifications to block Google tracking. But how can a company that raised 42 million dollars make money from a skin and some config modifications that can be developed by a student in his weekend? The real business model of Brave is obviously to gain enough market share by smearing Google, the company that actually created and still developing the browser, and block its main resource of revenue, Adsense and then make money by replacing the blocked ads with their own, of course this time "private" ad platform. In the mean time they can play with cryptocoin scams but in the end this is the only viable business model. Take and rebrand a browser as "private" alternative to evil big corp that created the browser that their entire business relies on, block ads, wait until gain enough market share and then extort publishers and advertisers to migrate to their own ad platform.
- BrendanEich 6y ago
  We don’t “replace” ads in pages, nor will we without pub as consenting partner (along with user). Your tiny violins play dirges for poor Google, why is that?
fsflover 6y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442027 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442027 The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes (davidgerard.co.uk) 205 points by davidgerard 1 hour ago | 82 comments
- BrendanEich 6y ago
  David is obsessed with smearing me, and fact free high spin as ever. We hijack nothing, no link rewriting. But what is more, based on user feedback, we are flipping the default on Brave site suggestions to “off”, even though it was aimed at showing the value of omnibox Binance affiliation where, if it worked, we would share back with users via BAT. Good job tanking this effort, and helping Chrome cement Google’s monopoly. (Firefox is dead.)
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
factfindingisfn 6y ago
Are there any good alternatives to Brave? Read the twitter response from their CEO and it was terrible...
- searchableguy 6y ago
  Ungoogled chrome, firefox and vivaldi.
- 3131s 6y ago
  You must know about Firefox right?
- burgerzzz 6y ago
  Pretty nuts, he asked one fellow why he liked his own comment, which seems super juvenile. And, he's just repeating ad nauseam that they will "never revise typed in domains again", which leaves a lot of wiggle room to me in what they will or won't revise with ref codes.
3131s 6y ago
I honestly assume that 80% of what I've seen pushing Brave against all basic common sense is astroturfing. Just use Firefox! Why would anyone ever choose Brave when it is proprietary and better free alternatives exist? This company's track record of disrespecting their users and sketchy monetization is so blatant, and its creator is a homophobic tool who is responsible for all of us writing Javascript instead of Scheme.
- saimiam 6y ago
  FF 1. doesn’t support screen share on browser based video calls. 2. Is super slow on Linux. 3. Doesn’t correctly read the ctrl key on my linux laptop i.e., I can’t correctly ctrl+c/v and so on. Switched to brave as an ungoogled Chrome.
  - owowow 6y ago
    I do screen shares on Jitsi in Firefox ESR on a daily basis, not really sure what your on about. What stack are you using? Firefox is smooth on Debian 10 both in Gnome and KDE.
- lalaland1125 6y ago
  I think a good fraction of the Brave propaganda posts are from people holding BAT as a way to increase the value of their investments. This is actually one of most toxic aspects of cryptocurrencies: decentralized ponzi schemes by their vary nature encourage all holders to promote the scam endlessly in search of greater fools.
- phasnox 6y ago
  Firefox is just worst. I also found he Mozilla foundation too evil to support. Vivaldi is proprietary. Brave seems like the only reasonable choice.
  - ebalit 6y ago
    In what way do you see the Mozilla foundation as evil? I'm asking as a Firefox user that doesn't have this image at all. If you have things that I should read to update, I would be interested.
monotypical 6y ago
Can't wait to see what scummy monetization tactic brave is found to be using next. Here's a question for any employees of brave who happen to be reading this: how did this get out the door? It's not like this is the first time the company has been found doing something that most people disagree with, and the fact that it keeps happening means that the process is still very much broken. I have not yet seen any response from brave that gives me confidence that the company has changed from when they were taking youtube donations of creations not signed up to the BAT program
ebalit 6y ago
I don't see this as particularly problematic if it's not replacing an existing referral code. It should definitely be opt-in and more transparent though. In fact, as a Firefox user, I would like to be able to activate a feature that would make Firefox the default beneficiary of affiliate rewards linked to my purchases. After all, I would not be visiting this website without it. Am I missing some way this could be hurting someone?
- Smithalicious 6y ago
  Brave is getting paid for having their referral code used, but they aren't actually referring anyone. The people that accept referral codes are being ripped off in a sense.
  - ketamine__ 6y ago
    Brave has a partnership with Binance. They aren't replacing random affiliate links as your comment suggests.

57 points by rfcenturies 6y ago

RNCTX 6y ago

If it’s associated with a cryptocurrency, it’s a scam. Just a matter of uncovering the details.

dang 6y ago
Please don't post unsubstantive comments to HN, or shallow dismissals of other people's work. Maybe you don't owe cryptocurrency better, but you owe this community better if you're participating in it. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- Daishiman 6y ago
  He's not wrong though.
  - dang 6y ago
    A comment needn't be wrong to be bad.
Proven 6y ago
Haha, that's a good point and rarely wrong. No option to disable search autocomplete and whatever else they do that's yet to be discovered. The only anti-feature they allow to be disabled is the shitcoin thing, but perhaps because it'd probably be federal crime not to.

pull_my_finger 6y ago

Brave seems to push the line as to what is acceptable ways to monetize the browser. Every time they will just call it a mistake and "fix" it, but why do they keep trying to push the limit? They had the "safe" ads replacing websites ads. They had the "shadow accounts" wrt the tip thing. Now they're trying to sneak in referral codes. How many "oopsies" do you get in good faith?

BrendanEich 6y ago
https://twitter.com/brendaneich/status/1269512276605759489?s=21 https://twitter.com/brendaneich/status/1269512276605759489?s... Et seq. Stop repeating falsehoods.
- pull_my_finger 6y ago
  Well that's not my twitter (nice dox attempt) but since that poster didn't know the history and is here on HN, I've got some links wrt ad replacement [1] and the shadow accounts + tipping where you don't know you aren't even notified you received money until you break a certain threshold and if you don't claim it within a certain amount of time it gets "recycled" back into the growth pool [2] conversation. I did mention that Brave "fixes" these issues when the public inevitably freaks out, but it's still worth noting the pattern of intent. [1] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/01/mozilla-co-founder-unveils-brave-a-web-browser-that-blocks-ads-by-default/?comments=1 https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/01/mozil... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18734999 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18734999
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

npiit 6y ago

People, especially non-technical people, still don't ask themselves, how can a company be profitable from a browser? Especially if the browser itself is 100% made by another company but the license permits to be used and rebranded by others. Brave browser is nothing but skin and some config modifications to block Google tracking. But how can a company that raised 42 million dollars make money from a skin and some config modifications that can be developed by a student in his weekend? The real business model of Brave is obviously to gain enough market share by smearing Google, the company that actually created and still developing the browser, and block its main resource of revenue, Adsense and then make money by replacing the blocked ads with their own, of course this time "private" ad platform. In the mean time they can play with cryptocoin scams but in the end this is the only viable business model. Take and rebrand a browser as "private" alternative to evil big corp that created the browser that their entire business relies on, block ads, wait until gain enough market share and then extort publishers and advertisers to migrate to their own ad platform.

BrendanEich 6y ago
We don’t “replace” ads in pages, nor will we without pub as consenting partner (along with user). Your tiny violins play dirges for poor Google, why is that?

fsflover 6y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442027 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442027 The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes (davidgerard.co.uk) 205 points by davidgerard 1 hour ago | 82 comments

BrendanEich 6y ago
David is obsessed with smearing me, and fact free high spin as ever. We hijack nothing, no link rewriting. But what is more, based on user feedback, we are flipping the default on Brave site suggestions to “off”, even though it was aimed at showing the value of omnibox Binance affiliation where, if it worked, we would share back with users via BAT. Good job tanking this effort, and helping Chrome cement Google’s monopoly. (Firefox is dead.)
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

factfindingisfn 6y ago

Are there any good alternatives to Brave? Read the twitter response from their CEO and it was terrible...

searchableguy 6y ago
Ungoogled chrome, firefox and vivaldi.
3131s 6y ago
You must know about Firefox right?
burgerzzz 6y ago
Pretty nuts, he asked one fellow why he liked his own comment, which seems super juvenile. And, he's just repeating ad nauseam that they will "never revise typed in domains again", which leaves a lot of wiggle room to me in what they will or won't revise with ref codes.

3131s 6y ago

I honestly assume that 80% of what I've seen pushing Brave against all basic common sense is astroturfing. Just use Firefox! Why would anyone ever choose Brave when it is proprietary and better free alternatives exist? This company's track record of disrespecting their users and sketchy monetization is so blatant, and its creator is a homophobic tool who is responsible for all of us writing Javascript instead of Scheme.

saimiam 6y ago
FF 1. doesn’t support screen share on browser based video calls. 2. Is super slow on Linux. 3. Doesn’t correctly read the ctrl key on my linux laptop i.e., I can’t correctly ctrl+c/v and so on. Switched to brave as an ungoogled Chrome.
- owowow 6y ago
  I do screen shares on Jitsi in Firefox ESR on a daily basis, not really sure what your on about. What stack are you using? Firefox is smooth on Debian 10 both in Gnome and KDE.
lalaland1125 6y ago
I think a good fraction of the Brave propaganda posts are from people holding BAT as a way to increase the value of their investments. This is actually one of most toxic aspects of cryptocurrencies: decentralized ponzi schemes by their vary nature encourage all holders to promote the scam endlessly in search of greater fools.
phasnox 6y ago
Firefox is just worst. I also found he Mozilla foundation too evil to support. Vivaldi is proprietary. Brave seems like the only reasonable choice.
- ebalit 6y ago
  In what way do you see the Mozilla foundation as evil? I'm asking as a Firefox user that doesn't have this image at all. If you have things that I should read to update, I would be interested.

monotypical 6y ago

Can't wait to see what scummy monetization tactic brave is found to be using next. Here's a question for any employees of brave who happen to be reading this: how did this get out the door? It's not like this is the first time the company has been found doing something that most people disagree with, and the fact that it keeps happening means that the process is still very much broken. I have not yet seen any response from brave that gives me confidence that the company has changed from when they were taking youtube donations of creations not signed up to the BAT program

ebalit 6y ago

I don't see this as particularly problematic if it's not replacing an existing referral code. It should definitely be opt-in and more transparent though. In fact, as a Firefox user, I would like to be able to activate a feature that would make Firefox the default beneficiary of affiliate rewards linked to my purchases. After all, I would not be visiting this website without it. Am I missing some way this could be hurting someone?

Smithalicious 6y ago
Brave is getting paid for having their referral code used, but they aren't actually referring anyone. The people that accept referral codes are being ripped off in a sense.
- ketamine__ 6y ago
  Brave has a partnership with Binance. They aren't replacing random affiliate links as your comment suggests.