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

> However, Eich is very sorry that Brave got caught — again — and something will be changed in some manner to stop this behaviour, or at least obscure it.

No surprise there.

> There is no good reason to use Brave. Use Chromium — the open-source core of Chrome — with the uBlock Origin ad blocker [...] or use Firefox with uBlock Origin — ‘cos it blocks more ads than the Chromium framework will let anything block.

Is this true? I assumed the functionality would be the same.

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

#6

Post by davidgerard » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

phnofive wrote: post #5

> However, Eich is very sorry that Brave got caught — again — and something will be changed in some manner to stop this behaviour, or at least obscure it. No surprise there. > There is no good reason to use Brave. Use Chromium — the open-source core of Chrome — with the uBlock Origin ad blocker [...] or use Firefox with uBlock Origin — ‘cos it blocks more ads than the Chromium framework will let anything block. Is th…

Nope! I routinely run Firefox and Chromium, both with uBO on default settings - and Google results on Chromium always have three ad-link results inserted at the top, lazy late-loading via JavaScript. Google know what they're doing there.

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

#7

Post by davidgerard » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 9:10 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #2

I would think the affiliate programs wouldn't like this either. The browser isn't doing anything to drive traffic. It's just taking credit for traffic that was coming already.

They seem to have explicit deals with Binance and Coinbase - don't know about Ledger or Trezor.

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

#8

Post by javajosh » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #2

I would think the affiliate programs wouldn't like this either. The browser isn't doing anything to drive traffic. It's just taking credit for traffic that was coming already.

Good point. Maybe brave should make affiliate-able links blink and/or respond to clicks in a wider area? (Just to be clear: this is satire. Please don't do this.)

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

#9

Post by sergiotapia » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 9:14 PM UTC

I'm going to have to switch browser AGAIN? Dammit.

Is Opera safe or what shady shit have they done? I haven't used Opera since Opera back in 2006. God I miss the Presto engine and dragonfly.

Can I go back to them or they doing shady stuff?

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

#10

Post by GraemeL » Sat, Jun 06, 2020, 9:14 PM UTC

phnofive wrote: post #5

> However, Eich is very sorry that Brave got caught — again — and something will be changed in some manner to stop this behaviour, or at least obscure it. No surprise there. > There is no good reason to use Brave. Use Chromium — the open-source core of Chrome — with the uBlock Origin ad blocker [...] or use Firefox with uBlock Origin — ‘cos it blocks more ads than the Chromium framework will let anything block. Is th…

The Firefox version has the ability to block third party scripts masked as first party ones through the use of CNAMEs. Chrome doesn't expose APIs to let extensions do it.