I like Brave.
But they always seem to be "asking forgiveness rather than permission".
Brave’s use of direct mailers
11–20 of 172 posts
Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers
#12It seems like a weird mia culpa. If I’m understanding right, they’re not sorry for sending the mailers, or working with a data broker to get the addresses, just for the fact that names were printed on the envelopes? I wonder who is concerned about the last one that isn’t more concerned about the first two.
Yeah, I don't get it either. Is there anybody who doesn't get this kind of mail at home addressed to them by name all the time?
Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers
#13This little stunt by Brave was clearly not the right move. Marketing is a necessity but if you sacrifice one of the core principals of your product i.e. privacy & security, what's the point?
The scenario is something like this:
Random person: recieves a physical mail right after installing Brave.
Brave: we are so so private and don't ever sell or use your data.
Random person: how did you get my address then right after I literally installed Brave?
Brave: you see, it's very private because we can't see the address or who the mail is going to go to. We just contracted a mailer who sent this marketing newsletter to everyone in their database.
Random person: ...
Brave: maybe you didn't understand but we, the brave company, didn't see who the mail would go to. That's privacy right?
Random person: deletes Brave
The problem here is that a privacy oriented company is accepting and making use of a very non-private method to spread privacy and Brave. Contradictory in it's core.
I still like Brave and what they represent. I am a fan. They do a lot of things right but this was baffling. I don't know how they could allow something like this to pass through the filter...
Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers
#14Quoted post unavailable.
They say they're using the USPS's EDDM tool, and they link to it in the post. I clicked, and skimmed until I found this:
> Choose the neighborhoods in the EDDM Online Tool where your customers live. Use the tool to target customers by specific demographics such as age, household size, and income.
So it seems like the database belongs to the government rather than the startup. It doesn't appear that this had any actual privacy impact, beyond the perception that Brave is targeting folks by name.
Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers
#15This little stunt by Brave was clearly not the right move. Marketing is a necessity but if you sacrifice one of the core principals of your product i.e. privacy & security, what's the point? The scenario is something like this: Random person: recieves a physical mail right after installing Brave. Brave: we are so so private and don't ever sell or use your data. Random person: how did you get my address then right aft…
> Marketing is a necessity but if you sacrifice one of the core principals of your product i.e. privacy & security, what's the point?
Because that is not even remotely the case as is clearly stated in the article in the first few sentences.
Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers
#16It seems like a weird mia culpa. If I’m understanding right, they’re not sorry for sending the mailers, or working with a data broker to get the addresses, just for the fact that names were printed on the envelopes? I wonder who is concerned about the last one that isn’t more concerned about the first two.
> data broker
If I'm understanding the EDDM tool correctly, the data broker appears to be the USPS.
Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers
#17It seems like a weird mia culpa. If I’m understanding right, they’re not sorry for sending the mailers, or working with a data broker to get the addresses, just for the fact that names were printed on the envelopes? I wonder who is concerned about the last one that isn’t more concerned about the first two.
They didn't work with a data broker. You can pay the post office in the US to send your mailer to every single address in a given zip code. This sort of bulk mailing represents the majority of your junk mail.
Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers
#18This little stunt by Brave was clearly not the right move. Marketing is a necessity but if you sacrifice one of the core principals of your product i.e. privacy & security, what's the point? The scenario is something like this: Random person: recieves a physical mail right after installing Brave. Brave: we are so so private and don't ever sell or use your data. Random person: how did you get my address then right aft…
From the second paragraph:
> Since 2020, Brave has been experimenting with direct mail via the United States Postal Service’s Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) program. EDDM allows businesses in the US to create and distribute mailers to addresses across one or more ZIP Codes.
I'm not sure where you got "tracking" from, but they're just sending mail to every address in a zip code.
Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers
#19Quoted post unavailable.
As far as I know, the database is owned by the USPS, and they can't do their job _without_ that information. You can dislike Brave for buying access to the information, or dislike USPS for selling said information. But the information is already collected by USPS so they can do their job.
Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers
#20No post body was provided.