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Brave files adtech complaint against Google

reuters.com

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Re: Brave files adtech complaint against Google

#121

Post by Cyclone_ »

Fiahil wrote: post #74
jonathansampson wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to respond, as a developer on the Brave project. We don't simply replace ads with other ads. The entire ad landscape has been co-opted by those who aim to collect as much data about you as is possible. Over 600 million devices were running some form of ad-blocking software in 2017, and that was an increase of 30% from the year prior. This number keeps growing, year over year. Something has to be done. Users…

Maybe we, the people, don't want you to rescue this industry. Maybe the "digital ad fraud" they're screaming is the sign they belong rightfully in the void we're trying to bury them. We've seen enough shit from the ad industry, and it's time to leave them behind as humanity progress and improve.

It's not just the ad industry, publishers need some form of revenue in order to do what they do.

Re: Brave files adtech complaint against Google

#122

Post by drb91 »

jonathansampson wrote: post #54
martindale wrote: post #14

Brave's strategy of replacing ads with other ads isn't going to do anyone any good. They could've used payment channels to build a content distribution network, but alas...

I'd like to respond, as a developer on the Brave project. We don't simply replace ads with other ads. The entire ad landscape has been co-opted by those who aim to collect as much data about you as is possible. Over 600 million devices were running some form of ad-blocking software in 2017, and that was an increase of 30% from the year prior. This number keeps growing, year over year. Something has to be done. Users…

Do you have any alternatives planned for monetization of ads? I would highly prefer to simply pay the content provider itself.

Re: Brave files adtech complaint against Google

#123

Post by drb91 »

Cyclone_ wrote: post #121
Fiahil wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe we, the people, don't want you to rescue this industry. Maybe the "digital ad fraud" they're screaming is the sign they belong rightfully in the void we're trying to bury them. We've seen enough shit from the ad industry, and it's time to leave them behind as humanity progress and improve.

It's not just the ad industry, publishers need some form of revenue in order to do what they do.

So what are the alternatives to ads? They’re going to continue to die until there’s a real alternative.

Re: Brave files adtech complaint against Google

#124

Post by jonathansampson »

sam_goody wrote: post #5
_xgw wrote: post #3

This comes at the same time that Malwarebytes starts flagging Brave as malware[1]. [1] https://twitter.com/lukesawczak/status/1039854898068815873

Malwarebytes has had a few (seemingly) false positives lately. Anecdotally, I was just hit by it falsely flagging BeyondCompare and my password manager. I assume they have just upped the ante of their heuristics, but am still concerned about the fallout, since I am starting to ignore them. Not related, but considering that it does not scan except on demand, why is it ALWAYS running? Who vouches for Mr. Malwarebytes?

It was indeed a false-positive: https://twitter.com/thomasareed/status/1039939712704819200. As for vouching for MB, I know some of the people behind the project, and they're spectacular. For years I have assisted with deobfuscating malicious JavaScript and more. They seem, to me, to have the purest of intentions.

(Not an official Brave endorsement, but I personally like their team)

Re: Brave files adtech complaint against Google

#125

Post by therealdrag0 »

losvedir wrote: post #89

I used Brave for a while, and still like it, but ultimately this bug[0] prompted me to move back to mobile Chrome, unfortunately. Hope they fix it soon! [0] https://github.com/brave/browser-android-tabs/issues/459

Ya. I like the idea, but it was took buggy for me on iOS.

Re: Brave files adtech complaint against Google

#126

Post by j2kun »

msla wrote: post #67
martindale wrote: post #14

Brave's strategy of replacing ads with other ads isn't going to do anyone any good. They could've used payment channels to build a content distribution network, but alas...

Just to get people on the same page, Doc Searls has a good post on the difference between advertising and adtech, and why replacing adtech with advertising is something one might want to do: http://blogs.harvard.edu/doc/2018/05/12/gdpr/ > Advertising isn’t personal, and doesn’t have to be. In fact, knowing it’s not personal is an advantage for advertisers. Consumers don’t wonder what the hell an ad is doing where it…

Doesn't adtech enable smaller advertisers (say, self-published book authors) to reach a niche audience in a way that traditional advertising would make infeasibly inefficient and expensive?

Re: Brave files adtech complaint against Google

#127

Post by jonathansampson »

dkhenry wrote: post #97

Maybe they can get Netflix working on Linux in addition to trying to use governments to shut down their competition. I _want_ to use brave, but without a fully working browser its hard to switch off firefox.

Can you elaborate as to what issue(s) you're seeing with Netflix? I know that we use WideVine for DMR content; it could be that this simply isn't an option for the time being. If you can share more information, I'll do my best to address it in a timely manner.

Also, version information would be helpful. In brave-muon you can find this in about:brave. In brave-core, it's in about:version. Thank you!

Re: Brave files adtech complaint against Google

#128

Post by Kalium »

devmunchies wrote: post #53
Kalium wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a public company? Probably rapid replacement of the C-suite. Almost nobody has margins fat enough to put up with that.

Would pulling out of EU be a better decision in this scenario?

Depends on how large the company's expected market is there. In most cases, the sheer size and wealth of the EU makes this also a bad idea.

Of course, there are hypothetical scenarios - though I can't think of a realistic one right now - where the EU division is only profitable with the economies of scale enabled by worldwide data-sharing. The assumption that anything and everything can be done profitable in a GDPR-compliant way is naive at best, deluded at worst, but not universally wrong.

Though between GDPR and the link tax proposal I can see news aggregators ceasing to exist entirely within the EU. Which seems very likely to do a great deal of harm to a lot of newspapers.

Re: Brave files adtech complaint against Google

#130

Post by jonathansampson »

DevKoala wrote: post #129

Brave is trying to fix the broken ad-tech industry with a monopoly on the decision of what gets tracked and what doesn't. I am not behind it at all.

Respectfully, you're not at all correct. Brave is aiming to cut out the tracking entirely. No user tracking. That's our default, out of the box behavior.

Brave Ads, which is an optional component, also will not track the user. Local machine-learning will decide what willing users are interested in, and whether or not to show them particular ads.

The Brave Ads system is antithetical to the current form of digital advertising. Rather than radiating personal information to innumerable third parties, you secure your data on your device, and let your device privately and securely determine what you would like, or would not like, to see.

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