[Oni]

My previous link is their official declaration (and fix) about this ^

Please. That reads like backpedaling if I ever saw it. Reminds me of EA's excuse over ads in UFC.  Its testing the waters on how much they can get away with. If they are doing that, what else might it be doing that hasnt been discovered? Not exactly what you want from a browser that bills itself on privacy.

I'm not here to make any judgement, it's always interesting to see official declarations about subjects like this

Unclaimed funds simply return to the wallet, where the donator can decide their fate.

I believe that's a change they made just after the complain of a Youtuber though

Post-2019 the funds wouldn't be held in escrow or released to the general pool. However, they weren't cashing out the escrow'd funds.

[Skullmeat]

The more I read about Brave and their business practices the more wary of it I become. From gathering donations on the behalf of youtubers who have not signed up, inserting affiliate links, replacing ads, and their heavy reliance on cryptocurrency to garner early interest.

Your criticisms are likely based on a lack of understanding. Unclaimed funds simply return to the wallet, where the donator can decide their fate. Brave itself isn't cashing out unclaimed funds and funds require identity verification, due to the IRS and tax laws. Any creator that complains, simply wasn't able to verify as a publisher.

Their ads aren't really "replacing" the ads of other websites, so much as creating a separate framework, which is independent of any sites you visit. The ads Brave serves are to the browser itself and show as notifications. They don't collect data and the user determines the frequency they're served (or they can opt out entirely).

Publishers must verify ownership of their properties with Brave in order to receive contributions from Brave users. If a publisher has not verified ownership, then a user’s contributions will be held in reserve inside the browser for 90 days. The browser routinely updates an internal list of all verified publishers to determine whether a property can receive contributions. At the end of the 90 day period, any contributions marked for unverified publishers will be released back to the wallet. No funds leave the browser except to go to verified creators.

See: https://brave.com/faq/

That change was made after the complaints, I belive. That being said, its still opt-out, and should be the other way around. My point about affiliate links stands however.

[Oni]

The more I read about Brave and their business practices the more wary of it I become. From gathering donations on the behalf of youtubers who have not signed up, inserting affiliate links, replacing ads, and their heavy reliance on cryptocurrency to garner early interest.

Your criticisms are likely based on a lack of understanding. Unclaimed funds simply return to the wallet, where the donator can decide their fate. Brave itself isn't cashing out unclaimed funds and funds require identity verification, due to the IRS and tax laws. Any creator that complains, simply wasn't able to verify as a publisher.

Their ads aren't really "replacing" the ads of other websites, so much as creating a separate framework, which is independent of any sites you visit. The ads Brave serves are to the browser itself and show as notifications. They don't collect data and the user determines the frequency they're served (or they can opt out entirely).

Publishers must verify ownership of their properties with Brave in order to receive contributions from Brave users. If a publisher has not verified ownership, then a user’s contributions will be held in reserve inside the browser for 90 days. The browser routinely updates an internal list of all verified publishers to determine whether a property can receive contributions. At the end of the 90 day period, any contributions marked for unverified publishers will be released back to the wallet. No funds leave the browser except to go to verified creators.

See: https://brave.com/faq/

That change was made after the complaints, I belive. That being said, its still opt-out, and should be the other way around. My point about affiliate links stands however.I'm

As I stated:

Please. That reads like backpedaling if I ever saw it. Reminds me of EA's excuse over ads in UFC.  Its testing the waters on how much they can get away with. If they are doing that, what else might it be doing that hasnt been discovered? Not exactly what you want from a browser that bills itself on privacy.

I'm not here to make any judgement, it's always interesting to see official declarations about subjects like this

Unclaimed funds simply return to the wallet, where the donator can decide their fate.

I believe that's a change they made just after the complain of a Youtuber though

Post-2019 the funds wouldn't be held in escrow or released to the general pool. However, they weren't cashing out the escrow'd funds.

This was amended so that they would leave the funds in the wallet rather than use escrow, but the escrow funds were never taken/manipulated.

[Jiggly]

I'd love to hear other browser suggestions?

Personally, after a discord discussion, I started searching a little more information about various browsers and their various benefits compared to their scandals. I can easily say, there's not a single browser I came across that was free of something morally defunct. I definitely think it's worth sharing your experiences and preferences, as that can open doors for people that didn't know about what was available. However, to claim that you choose your browser based on morals... is a little questionable xD

I'd argue the same is true for IM services (we use Discord and they are definitely assholes), Game Devs, Web Devs and more. I'm not sure there is any true moral high ground when it comes to the internet and technologies/companies that surround it.

[ConcernedCitizen]

I'd love to hear other browser suggestions?

Personally, after a discord discussion, I started searching a little more information about various browsers and their various benefits compared to their scandals. I can easily say, there's not a single browser I came across that was free of something morally defunct. I definitely think it's worth sharing your experiences and preferences, as that can open doors for people that didn't know about what was available. However, to claim that you choose your browser based on morals... is a little questionable xD

I'd argue the same is true for IM services (we use Discord and they are definitely assholes), Game Devs, Web Devs and more. I'm not sure there is any true moral high ground when it comes to the internet and technologies/companies that surround it.

Have you tried visiting the web using your toaster? /sarcasm
This is opinion and mine alone so don't take this as an attack on your favorite browsers, especially Brave, since that's the admin's favorite one to use. I don't think you should trust anything other than Tor browser for privacy. It's what it was designed for. All other browsers act as stand-ins and you can merely scratch the surface of your threat matrix. Everyone is different and we all have different definitions of "threat" but I've worked with people that are government contractors and the only way we communicated was through Tor and Jabber w/ OTR (Off The Record) and now OMEMO is a big thing. That's saying something. You can ignore the facts all you want but these technologies were designed for government use and adopted by the general public and there are extensive reviews into their security. I'll stick with what I use, because it's the devil I know.

[Oni]

I'd love to hear other browser suggestions?

Personally, after a discord discussion, I started searching a little more information about various browsers and their various benefits compared to their scandals. I can easily say, there's not a single browser I came across that was free of something morally defunct. I definitely think it's worth sharing your experiences and preferences, as that can open doors for people that didn't know about what was available. However, to claim that you choose your browser based on morals... is a little questionable xD

I'd argue the same is true for IM services (we use Discord and they are definitely assholes), Game Devs, Web Devs and more. I'm not sure there is any true moral high ground when it comes to the internet and technologies/companies that surround it.

Have you tried visiting the web using your toaster? /sarcasm
This is opinion and mine alone so don't take this as an attack on your favorite browsers, especially Brave, since that's the admin's favorite one to use. I don't think you should trust anything other than Tor browser for privacy. It's what it was designed for. All other browsers act as stand-ins and you can merely scratch the surface of your threat matrix. Everyone is different and we all have different definitions of "threat" but I've worked with people that are government contractors and the only way we communicated was through Tor and Jabber w/ OTR (Off The Record) and now OMEMO is a big thing. That's saying something. You can ignore the facts all you want but these technologies were designed for government use and adopted by the general public and there are extensive reviews into their security. I'll stick with what I use, because it's the devil I know.

While these are great for anonymity, I doubt there's many people that use TOR/OTR exclusively. Brave also has TOR built into it as a feature.

[fritz]

I'd love to hear other browser suggestions?

I personally don't see any reason to not use Firefox (on mobile also, now that's it's finally awesome) ?!
I've always respected Mozilla foundation and their ideology, although because of that they've never became profitable, and depend totally on Google. That might change if their new services become popular though, we'll see..

[Oni]

I'd love to hear other browser suggestions?

I personally don't see any reason to not use Firefox (on mobile also, now that's it's finally awesome) ?!
I've always respected Mozilla foundation and their ideology, although because of that they've never became profitable, and depend totally on Google. That might change if their new services become popular though, we'll see..

I use Brave, but I still love Firefox and have donated to Mozilla in the past. They've definitely improved the speed over the years, as Chrome used to be the faster option.

[Jiggly]

I'd love to hear other browser suggestions?

I personally don't see any reason to not use Firefox (on mobile also, now that's it's finally awesome) ?!
I've always respected Mozilla foundation and their ideology, although because of that they've never became profitable, and depend totally on Google. That might change if their new services become popular though, we'll see..

Firefox is a close second fave of mine. I used it before I used brave, and I wouldn't bash anyone for using it. It will be interesting to see what happens, in relation to the Google stuff. I know a lot of people choose Firefox to get away from Google (I was one of them), so it's weird with the relationship between them.

[fritz]

I'd love to hear other browser suggestions?

I personally don't see any reason to not use Firefox (on mobile also, now that's it's finally awesome) ?!
I've always respected Mozilla foundation and their ideology, although because of that they've never became profitable, and depend totally on Google. That might change if their new services become popular though, we'll see..

Firefox is a close second fave of mine. I used it before I used brave, and I wouldn't bash anyone for using it. It will be interesting to see what happens, in relation to the Google stuff. I know a lot of people choose Firefox to get away from Google (I was one of them), so it's weird with the relationship between them.

Well yeah it's a bit awkward, but this relation is very basic and economical only; but still makes a huge part of their revenue.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Co...ion#Google (Unfortunately no visibility after 2011)
By the way Google pays way less, per search, to Mozilla than to Apple and others. They basically know they're totally dependent...