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

davidgerard.co.uk

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

#231

Post by bootlooped »

SahAssar wrote: post #114
toyg wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The substance of their business model has always been "we fight advertisers because money should flow to websites through us ". They changed actual terms a few times when called up on their tactics being shady, but that's always been the end goal. In that framework, hijacking referral links is par for the course. I don't blame them - a man's gotta eat, and they're not doing anything illegal or dangerous - but I've al…

> they're not doing anything illegal or dangerous The words "dishonest" and "rent-seeking" come to mind. Also, it seems that using affiliate links without disclosure might actually be illegal.

I would be surprised if inserting affiliate links in this manner wasn't against the TOS of the site. It's not adding value for the site if Brave is just front-running people who have already decided to go there.

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

#232

Post by bootlooped »

ethagnawl wrote: post #226
mmcru wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it on iOS because its an easy solution for ad-blocking. Is there a good ad-blocker for Safari on iOS?

A really robust option that will work on all of your devices is to setup a remote Pi-Hole and access it via VPN. (This last point is very important and I learned the hard way after my publicly available Pi-Hole instance was discovered and used for DNS amplification attacks.) https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/vpn/overview/

I recently went on a journey of setting up a pi hole. I eventually gave up and set up NextDNS instead. I didn't want to have to use a VPN for everything.

I was previously using Adaway on mobile. I think NextDNS produces the same result.

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

#233

Post by agotterer »

djsumdog wrote: post #209
atombender wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Brave because it's a "degoogled" Chrome. Having good blocking built in is a plus. Being able to use Chrome extensions is also a plus. I've tried Firefox many times over the years, and only recently has it gotten to a point where it's fast and nice enough on macOS. There are still corners of the app I dislike (it doesn't always feel like a native app, for example), but this may be a reason to finally switch.

Vivaldi is another Chromium based browser, although it's closed source. Firefox was getting much better for a while right after the Quantum release, but recently it has fallen way behind.

I came here to suggest Vivaldi. I’ve been using it for nearly two years as my primary browser. It’s not perfect, but no browser is. However, it’s the only browser I’ve found that treats It’s users like an adult and lets them setup the browser the way they want.

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

#234

Post by augusto-moura »

meerita wrote: post #15

Being a happy Firefox user and watching all the browser drama from the backyard. I still don't understand why people uses Chrome or Chrome variants claiming privacy things.

Well much of Firefox was done by Brendan Eich, he is a founder of both Mozilla and Brave

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

#235

Post by me_smith »

Sevaris wrote: post #31
meerita wrote: post #15

Being a happy Firefox user and watching all the browser drama from the backyard. I still don't understand why people uses Chrome or Chrome variants claiming privacy things.

I'm quite happy with FF on desktops, but the mobile version is just ... overall a miserable experience compared to Brave. After using it for a while, going back to FF constantly makes me feel like useful QoL features are missing and I end up going back to Brave.

I'm considering trying FF on mobile and I am curious what QoL features are missing? Thanks!

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

#236

Post by fault_lines »

mthoms wrote: post #229
mthoms wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your title is, at the very best, poorly phrased. At worst, intentionally misleading. Whether or not you approve of what they are doing, and regardless of whether what they are doing is moral - they are not "hijacking links". That practice of "hijacking links" specifically means re-writing/modifying existing links on pages that you don't control (hence the term "hijacking" - or taking what belongs to someone else). A…

I know I'm not supposed to reference downvotes on HN. But I would like to kindly ask downvoters to explain why what I've written is incorrect.

Regardless of whether the terminology is technically correct, it's easily understood what the meaning is. Modifying links and modifying typed URLs are equally bad, so your claim that it is sensationalist doesn't make sense. Your post is pure pedantry that does not make any substantive contribution.

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

#237

Post by aasasd »

kick wrote: post #222
aasasd wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they got caught doing some stuff involving predatory short-term loans to the impoverished in African countries, not to mention their CEO was also involved in an entirely different Chinese conglomerate that was also involved with fraud and some lending thing Ooh juicy. Any links to read on this?

Previous coverage on HN because I'm very indecisive and don't like giving links myself: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... You can also find more if you check Opera Software's Wikipedia page.

Thanks!

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

#238

Post by Meekro »

You know how Firefox has a deal with Google where if you use Firefox and do a Google search and click on an ad, Firefox gets a cut of the ad money? This is sort of like that: Binance and Brave have a deal[1] where Brave promotes Binance from an in-browser widget[2], and in return Brave gets affiliate money whenever a Brave user signs up for Binance (whether by clicking on the widget or not).

In cases of affiliate hijacking, the company (and not the user) is the victim because the company is made to pay referral money when the hijacker didn't actually refer the customer. This didn't happen here because, again, Brave and Binance have a deal and Brave is operating according to that deal.

I suppose editing URLs out from under people is a little weird, so now that there's been an outcry they'll probably change it to identify Brave users by UserAgent or by injecting an HTTP header or something.

[1] https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1269289242905042944 [2] https://cointelegraph.com/news/brave-browser-brings-binance-...

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

#240

Post by nine_k »

me_smith wrote: post #235
Sevaris wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm quite happy with FF on desktops, but the mobile version is just ... overall a miserable experience compared to Brave. After using it for a while, going back to FF constantly makes me feel like useful QoL features are missing and I end up going back to Brave.

I'm considering trying FF on mobile and I am curious what QoL features are missing? Thanks!

From my perspective, none of them. The browser is reasonably fast, and you can still share bookmarks and logins with other installations if you create a Mozilla account (or host your own sync server!).

But, from my perspective, just having uBlock Origin installed in the extensions is a huge differentiator, that gives most pages a lot of speedup. Stylus can also be helpful to fix some suboptimal mobile designs.

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