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Brave’s use of direct mailers

brave.com

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Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#41

Post by morganvachon »

sha256sum wrote: post #34

I feel like the criticism towards Brave ITT is unjustified. This is a USPS service which is available to businesses. If you're a privacy conscious person in the US, you've likely opted out of this list. Brave is reaching the people who may not have done this, to the end of getting regular folks to know their alternatives against big tech companies. I guess don't get the ire, or what the expectation is for them to gro…

Here's the fun thing: I have opted out of blind mailers from the USPS, yet I got one of these Brave mailers last week with my name on it (I'm in the Atlanta area). Just one more reason of many for me to never, ever let Brave near any of my devices.

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#42

Post by powersnail »

I trust that Brave doesn't have a database with residents' names and addresses, but the problem with the marketing stunt, is that the moment they have to explain that it's not actually nefarious, they've already lost.

It's like making a misleading advertisement, but instead of misleading the users to trust them, it shocked the potential user base into a false sense of insecurity.

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#43

Post by mcculley »

charlfields wrote: post #4

I don’t know if it was coincidence but I got two mailers the same week after I downloaded brave into my laptop, It freaked me out to think they already knew my address by just installing the browser. I hope everyone learns from this and use other methods of marketing for companies that market themselves as privacy first.

> It freaked me out to think they already knew my address by just installing the browser

Did you really think that? I would have considered it to more likely be a coincidence.

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#44

Post by encryptluks2 »

sha256sum wrote: post #34

I feel like the criticism towards Brave ITT is unjustified. This is a USPS service which is available to businesses. If you're a privacy conscious person in the US, you've likely opted out of this list. Brave is reaching the people who may not have done this, to the end of getting regular folks to know their alternatives against big tech companies. I guess don't get the ire, or what the expectation is for them to gro…

You can't opt out. After multiple calls and complaints to USPS and speaking to the Postmaster General I was given two options. Either I could STFU and keep getting them along with my other mail, or I could opt to not have any mail delivered anymore. And... People wonder why the USPS shouldn't be a bank.

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#45

Post by dimitrios1 »

toma_caliente wrote: post #26
jayofdoom wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Having worked in marketing, they absolutely worked with a data broker. You don't blindly send out mailers. You use data brokers to zone in on a target market. "This zip code is more like to buy X while this zip code is more like to buy Y."

The USPS sells all the addresses themselves.

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#46

Post by encryptluks2 »

rhexs wrote: post #28
logicalmonster wrote: post #20

Quoted post unavailable.

Quoted post unavailable.

He didn't donate to the wrong religion he donated to Prop 8 a proposal in California to ban same-sex marriage. Acting like same-sex marriage is a religion is bigoted and should not be tolerated here.

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#49

Post by arthurcolle »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #44
sha256sum wrote: post #34

I feel like the criticism towards Brave ITT is unjustified. This is a USPS service which is available to businesses. If you're a privacy conscious person in the US, you've likely opted out of this list. Brave is reaching the people who may not have done this, to the end of getting regular folks to know their alternatives against big tech companies. I guess don't get the ire, or what the expectation is for them to gro…

You can't opt out. After multiple calls and complaints to USPS and speaking to the Postmaster General I was given two options. Either I could STFU and keep getting them along with my other mail, or I could opt to not have any mail delivered anymore. And... People wonder why the USPS shouldn't be a bank.

That doesn't seem right. https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-stop-junk-mail

Which Postmaster General did you speak to again?

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#50

Post by longrod »

mixedCase wrote: post #15
longrod wrote: post #13

This 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.

The fact that they have to explain themselves with an article speaks a lot. Was this specific method necessary? I am sure it cost them quite a bit and were the results worth it?

How many people would read the article? How many people would simply run away from Brave due to this? How many people would care to research it a bit more?

Privacy is such a sensitive topic for privacy-respecting people that most of the time even a little doubt blows up the ship. This was a huge risk taken by Brave and unnecessarily so because they didn't do anything extraordinary by sending people mail.

Moreover, can this one article stop the negative sentiment from spreading? I don't think so.

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