6 ms·

Tell HN: Brave Browser is still messing with affiliate links

67 points by jimhi 4y ago

Previously they had been autofilling links and replacing affiliate links with their code: https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21283769/brave-browser-affiliate-links-crypto-privacy-ceo-apology They stopped doing that but I found they appear to remove affiliate links altogether unless it comes from them. Just to test I put NordVPN's affiliate link structure and viola it gets removed: <a href="https://go.nordvpn.net/aff_c">Test Affiliate Link</a>

ev1 4y ago
Do you have any adblocking? /aff_c are almost universally blocked because they're 99% spam, on any domain
gravitate 4y ago
I read a while back that Bitly the popular URL shortener replaced Amazon links with their own affiliate tag. After hearing this I ran my own URL shortener service. Seems Brave is replacing the affiliate code URL too. You could get around this by setting up your own URL shortener service.
- ev1 4y ago
  Tinyurl and several others do this
gabrielsroka 4y ago
I'm running Brave for Android. I tested your link, and it works fine for me.
- jimhi 4y ago
  Did you put it on a webpage so it's actually rendering the HTML or just look at it here in this post?
  - gabrielsroka 4y ago
    I put it on a webpage.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
t6jvcereio 4y ago
Stick to Firefox guys.
- behnamoh 4y ago
  I actually switched from FF to Brave. Much happier with it now. The only thing I miss from FF is PiP for videos, but that can be solved by an extension on Brave.
  - t6jvcereio 4y ago
    Sorry, I don't want crypto in my browser.
    - behnamoh 4y ago
      I literally disabled it.
- prepend 4y ago
  I switched from FireFox to Brave. The UX is just so much better. Launch is faster. Updates are faster (and smaller). And resource load is less. I also like being less entailed with Google and view Brave’s chromium base a lesser evil than FireFox’s funding dependency. For what it’s worth, I don’t care at all about this affiliate hijacking and think it’s actually a benefit that more things should do as long as they don’t break the experience (eg, screw up the rewrites).
  - jraph 4y ago
    > I also like being less entailed with Google and view Brave’s chromium base a lesser evil than FireFox’s funding dependency. Right. Instead of relying on funding coming from Google to develop the browser, Brave just uses Google's one directly, which in my opinion is quite equivalent to getting 100% funded by Google for developing the browser. I hope Firefox will be able to get its founding from other entities. Brave, however, is never getting rid of Google and its technical decisions without a rewrite from scratch and is just participating in Google's dominance on the Web. You may like Brave for its technical qualities, but we can't pretend it is better than Firefox wrt dependency on Google. Developing the browser skin is not the hard part, and it is also not the place where the Web desperately needs help. I wish there was a browser that could keep up with the current web and that is not mostly funded by a GAFAM (or a GA, at this point), and Brave isn't one.
leros 4y ago
I'm surprised that's noy in violation of the affiliate and getting them kicked off the program.
propogandist 4y ago
did you check if it's saved in the cookie? I see on my machine visiting Nord via one of those terrible "VPN comparison" websites; affiliate links usually just drop a cookie.
- jimhi 4y ago
  All I did was put the link in my post above on my own website to see why it was acting weird without console errors.
FrenchDevRemote 4y ago
"They stopped doing that but I found they appear to remove affiliate links altogether unless it comes from them." isn't that the whole purpose of adblocking? :)
- hertzrat 4y ago
  Removing affiliate codes is arguably a privacy feature. People don’t especially like having so many sites know where they just came from. I know some people who rely on those affiliate codes for some of their income though Did they really replace the codes with their own for a while??
- Kaze404 4y ago
  The whole purpose of adblocking is blocking ads except when it comes from the company doing the blocking?
kbelder 4y ago
I'm always a little uncomfortable seeing accusations like that when there's just a sample size of one. It's worth raising the question, so we can check, but people always remember the accusation and not the exoneration. This should probably be communicated as "I'm seeing this behavior... can anybody else replicate it?" An "Ask HN", not a "Tell HN".
- jimhi 4y ago
  I only wrote this after some coworkers asked me about a weird looking websites. I'm not a brave user. I just downloaded it and messed around with links on my own site until I saw that was what was happening.
mp3geek 4y ago
I had no issues here. In Easylist we will remove many of the nord ad (image) spam. Which uBO and Brave uses. /Disclaimer Easylist Maintainer and Brave Webcompat
- hasperdi 4y ago
  My thank you for maintaining Easylist
hopth 4y ago
The fact they would do this at all is what stopped me from using the browser the first time around. More for the reason, what else would they do to make a profit.
max_hammer 4y ago
I only use Brave only for iOS (Ipad) because you can't I stall ad blocker (ublock origin) on firefox/chrome. Any other alternative of brave for iOS ?
- newscracker 4y ago
  You could setup NextDNS (nextdns.io) on it and enable various DNS level filter lists (and manual lists) on your NextDNS account. Each account can have multiple profiles too, which allows you to use different profiles on different devices. This will help block ads and trackers across all apps on your device, not just on the browser. To augment it further, you could use Firefox Focus (which comes with a built-in content blocker).

67 points by jimhi 4y ago

ev1 4y ago

Do you have any adblocking? /aff_c are almost universally blocked because they're 99% spam, on any domain

gravitate 4y ago

I read a while back that Bitly the popular URL shortener replaced Amazon links with their own affiliate tag. After hearing this I ran my own URL shortener service. Seems Brave is replacing the affiliate code URL too. You could get around this by setting up your own URL shortener service.

ev1 4y ago
Tinyurl and several others do this

gabrielsroka 4y ago

I'm running Brave for Android. I tested your link, and it works fine for me.

jimhi 4y ago
Did you put it on a webpage so it's actually rendering the HTML or just look at it here in this post?
- gabrielsroka 4y ago
  I put it on a webpage.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

t6jvcereio 4y ago

Stick to Firefox guys.

behnamoh 4y ago
I actually switched from FF to Brave. Much happier with it now. The only thing I miss from FF is PiP for videos, but that can be solved by an extension on Brave.
- t6jvcereio 4y ago
  Sorry, I don't want crypto in my browser.
  - behnamoh 4y ago
    I literally disabled it.
prepend 4y ago
I switched from FireFox to Brave. The UX is just so much better. Launch is faster. Updates are faster (and smaller). And resource load is less. I also like being less entailed with Google and view Brave’s chromium base a lesser evil than FireFox’s funding dependency. For what it’s worth, I don’t care at all about this affiliate hijacking and think it’s actually a benefit that more things should do as long as they don’t break the experience (eg, screw up the rewrites).
- jraph 4y ago
  > I also like being less entailed with Google and view Brave’s chromium base a lesser evil than FireFox’s funding dependency. Right. Instead of relying on funding coming from Google to develop the browser, Brave just uses Google's one directly, which in my opinion is quite equivalent to getting 100% funded by Google for developing the browser. I hope Firefox will be able to get its founding from other entities. Brave, however, is never getting rid of Google and its technical decisions without a rewrite from scratch and is just participating in Google's dominance on the Web. You may like Brave for its technical qualities, but we can't pretend it is better than Firefox wrt dependency on Google. Developing the browser skin is not the hard part, and it is also not the place where the Web desperately needs help. I wish there was a browser that could keep up with the current web and that is not mostly funded by a GAFAM (or a GA, at this point), and Brave isn't one.

leros 4y ago

I'm surprised that's noy in violation of the affiliate and getting them kicked off the program.

propogandist 4y ago

did you check if it's saved in the cookie? I see on my machine visiting Nord via one of those terrible "VPN comparison" websites; affiliate links usually just drop a cookie.

jimhi 4y ago
All I did was put the link in my post above on my own website to see why it was acting weird without console errors.

FrenchDevRemote 4y ago

"They stopped doing that but I found they appear to remove affiliate links altogether unless it comes from them." isn't that the whole purpose of adblocking? :)

hertzrat 4y ago
Removing affiliate codes is arguably a privacy feature. People don’t especially like having so many sites know where they just came from. I know some people who rely on those affiliate codes for some of their income though Did they really replace the codes with their own for a while??
Kaze404 4y ago
The whole purpose of adblocking is blocking ads except when it comes from the company doing the blocking?

kbelder 4y ago

I'm always a little uncomfortable seeing accusations like that when there's just a sample size of one. It's worth raising the question, so we can check, but people always remember the accusation and not the exoneration. This should probably be communicated as "I'm seeing this behavior... can anybody else replicate it?" An "Ask HN", not a "Tell HN".

jimhi 4y ago
I only wrote this after some coworkers asked me about a weird looking websites. I'm not a brave user. I just downloaded it and messed around with links on my own site until I saw that was what was happening.

mp3geek 4y ago

I had no issues here. In Easylist we will remove many of the nord ad (image) spam. Which uBO and Brave uses. /Disclaimer Easylist Maintainer and Brave Webcompat

hasperdi 4y ago
My thank you for maintaining Easylist

hopth 4y ago

The fact they would do this at all is what stopped me from using the browser the first time around. More for the reason, what else would they do to make a profit.

max_hammer 4y ago

I only use Brave only for iOS (Ipad) because you can't I stall ad blocker (ublock origin) on firefox/chrome. Any other alternative of brave for iOS ?

newscracker 4y ago
You could setup NextDNS (nextdns.io) on it and enable various DNS level filter lists (and manual lists) on your NextDNS account. Each account can have multiple profiles too, which allows you to use different profiles on different devices. This will help block ads and trackers across all apps on your device, not just on the browser. To augment it further, you could use Firefox Focus (which comes with a built-in content blocker).