Privacy By Default With Brave Browser
Last updated on February 27th, 2024 at 03:15 pm
Marketing is big business. Businesses have used many different methods of marketing to prospective customers throughout the centuries.
Why?
Because getting your company’s product or service in front of as many potential customers as possible means an increased bottom line.
This need has led to the development of an entire industry.
The advertising industry is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in the economy of many of the largest nations across the globe.
Currently, the United States is the largest advertising market in the world.
In 2016, companies spent more than $190 Billion on advertising in the U.S.
Furthering this industry is technological advancements.
In particular, the invention and subsequent advancement of consumer tracking methods and technologies has revolutionized the entire marketing industry.
As the internet has become a staple item in people’s everyday lives… no matter where you turn, access to anything you need online is never more than a click away.
Computers, tablets, mobile devices… the on ramps are endless… and it’s all tracked by online bots!
It seems Orwellian doesn’t it?
This very idea is a prime argument for the development and use of cryptocurrency and many other blockchain technologies.
But the level of sophistication and complexity of this intrusive behavior goes well beyond the scope of this article… and honestly, should scare every person on this planet.
Want to discover the ‘birth’ of all this online tracking and the revolution currently underway to change it, check out this video with Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScipt and the CEO of Brave.
But before we get too far off topic… let’s bring it back around…
Let’s talk about an example that has happened to every person who has ever shopped and purchased anything online…
You want to buy a particular product.
So, like a good consumer, you do some research… you check out websites, read reviews, search for the cheapest price… and after you feel comfortable about it, you break out your credit card and have it shipped to your door.
Sounds like a pretty typical online buying process, right?
Now, have you ever noticed that after you did your research and made a purchase, no matter what website you go to there seems to be an ad with the item you just bought?
Sometimes it even more subtle than that… maybe you and a friend were messaging or emailing about buying something and the next thing you know, you start seeing ads for it everywhere online.
This is the multi-billion dollar advertising industry hard at work!
Frankly, this is why taking steps to maintain your privacy online is crucial… but again, going down the ‘online privacy’ rabbit hole is WELL BEYOND the scope of this article…
Follow The Money
We’ve already talked about how advertising to you is big business.
But who makes the money?
Well the obvious answer would be the advertisers… assuming that they get a positive ROI from their advertising dollars.
But, they are not necessarily the real winners…
The big money is made by the intermediaries or ‘middlemen’ who place and maintain the tracking codes and pixels in the various photos and advertisements you see online.
So what is the result of the injection of these codes and pixels?
Well, there is the obvious erosion of privacy… beyond that, there is the cost to the advertisers who have no guarantee of making any ROI and the loss of your time waiting for webs pages to load so you can scroll by all the ads.
Ultimately, the only person NOT making any money is you. You and your attention are the commodity being peddled
Have you ever noticed how slow some websites and browsers are when they are loading?
This is often because of all the tracking that is also being loaded behind the scenes… just watch the lower left hand corner of your browser when it’s loading, you’ll see all kinds of things ‘being loaded.’
Consumers Are Fighting Back
For those who understand the invasiveness of this type of tracking and entirely new industry has emerged…
Enter ‘ad blocking’
There are many ways of trying to maintain online privacy.
The variations of technology to accomplish all this blocking of ads abounds… browser plugins, VPNs, virus protection, encrypted email… the list just goes on and on.
While we do believe that the use of many of these things is critical in today’s online world, their use is not always convenient or easy to be quite frank.
START FIGHTING BACK – DOWNLOAD BRAVE HERE
So what should you do?
Well, we are not here to be your online security consultants. But let’s look at it from the perspective of an ‘average joe’ just looking to do some shopping online…
Let’s start out our open minded discussion by asking a question…
Is advertising to us a bad thing?
Well, the answer to that is probably very subjective… but we would suggest that advertising, in and of itself by businesses, is not a bad thing.
A company obviously needs to be able to promote its product or service to people otherwise, the likelihood is that they will have to close their doors due to lack of sales.
On the flip side, by looking through multiple ads, consumers have many options for the products and services that they may be looking to buy.
Seems like a ‘win, win.’
We would put out for your consideration that YOU, the consumer are the product… and every business is vying for the most important thing you have… your time & attention
A New Way To Surf The Web
So, let’s put the whole shebang into perspective…
Everything you do online is being tracked… you’re being bombarded with targeted ads as a result of that tracking… this slows the speed and efficiency of your computer or mobile device… and you’re attention is basically a commodity, a commodity that everyone but you is being paid for…
Did we miss anything?
If you ask us, the current model is broken and definitely doesn’t have our best interest at its core.
Enter Brave
If you have already used Brave, then you’ve probably noticed that it looks and feels a lot like the Google Chrome browser. There’s a good reason for that.
These are some of the issues that the Brave Browser is looking to change.
Brave is a web browser that was designed with code from Chromium; the open source code that is maintained by Google for the Google Chrome browser.
The use of this code has the added benefit of allowing Brave users to remain using many of the existing Chrome extensions they already know and love.
The similarities pretty much end there.
While both Chrome and Brave originated from the same code bases, Brave has several changes which they have implemented on top of it.
Brave was created by Brendan Eich, whom we mentioned earlier.
He is the creator of Netscape and JavaScript and the co-founder of the Mozilla FireFox browser.
So there is probably no one more adept at creating a next generation web browser such as Brave.
But, he’s not alone. He is surrounded by a great team.
You can see the entire team here.
Unlike the Chrome browser which allows users data to be logged and shared, Brave does not share the user data with anyone. All browsing data is decentralized as it never leaves the user’s individual browser.
So a person’s online history remains private.
This unique integration also plays into the use of the Basic Attention Token (BAT).
We’ll talk more about this integration and the intrinsic ecosystem shortly.
But if you want to learn more about BAT, you can read our post here.
Brave Changes Your Online Experience
When Brave was developed it was built to usher in the ‘privacy by default’ era.
You can listen to Brendan Eich talk about that here.
To this end, when you first install and activate the Brave browser, ads and trackers are blocked by default.
They call this ‘shields’… it’s kind of like an episode of Star Trek; “shields up.” So, instantly you will see just the content you have requested to view and nothing else.
Now, should you decide you want to see all the ads that the internet has to offer, you can do that too.
The option is available to users to either allow or block ads… if we are to keep the Star Trek metaphor going; “lower the shields.”
In the latest iteration of the Brave browser, if you do decide to allow ads to be displayed, you get to determine how many ads you want to see per hour and in exchange for your attention, you will be paid in the form of BAT tokens directly from the advertiser.
This is known as a peer-to-peer transaction. This is one of the foundation stones of the cryptocurreny space.
So how does Brave accomplish this?
Basically, the Brave browser eliminates the need for any middlemen in the advertising market. When an advertiser wants to advertise on Brave, they set up their account, purchase BAT and create their ads.
Their ads are matched to those Brave users who want to see ads and as compensation for their time. Brave users are then paid some of the BAT from these advertisers.
This is brilliant!
You can actually create a passive income by doing something you already do, use the internet the way you normally would and let advertisers that match your browsing habits show you their ads.
Advertisers get a better ROI because they are only paying for the ads that get displayed, and you actually get paid for your time
Oh and by the way, you’re still not being tracked because Brave is blocking all traditional ad trackers.
Other Benefits of Brave
While having the ability to use the internet without being tracked, being bombarded with unwanted ads and getting paid for your time wasn’t enough reason to use the Brave browser… what other benefits are there?
Because Brave blocks ads and trackers by default, the user experience is enhanced. The speed that web pages loading in the Brave browser is almost 2x faster than Google.
Moreover, because the browser operates more efficiently than its competition, this has the added benefit of saving you money. Your data usage charges should drop and the battery life of your devices should increase.
But the benefits don’t stop there…
Do you create online content?
Do you have a blog?
Do you have a YouTube Channel?
If you post good quality content online then you have another opportunity to make money.
Brave users can tip you for your online content…
So, if someone visits your blog, reads your post and really likes it, they can reward you by giving you a tip for your hard work.
All anyone has to do is click the BAT icon in the upper right hand corner of the browser and click the ‘tip’ button.
They can then send BAT directly to you, which in turn incentives you to continue creating more great content.
But it doesn’t end there…
Brave users can leave the tipping feature active when as they go about their normal online activities.
Brave calls this feature Auto-Contribute.
Basically Brave measures which sites are visited most frequently and uses the auto tipping feature to give your most viewed creators a contribution at the end of each month.
So, if you are a content creator, the more great content you put out, the more traffic you will receive, simply because people are interested… but, because you are a registered content creator with Brave, you can earn more BAT simply because users consuming your content have the auto-contribute feature active.
The use of this auto-contribute feature is completely optional and has to be activated by the user. The amount of BAT available each month to pay these contributions is regulated by the user, so you have full control of your in-browser BAT wallet.
Learn more about becoming a registered Brave Content Creator here
Time For Change
The time has come to kick off the ‘privacy as default’ era online. However, the power to make these changes is literally at the other end of your mouse.
By using the Brave browser, you can take the first step to controlling how much of your online activities are tracked and recorded. Brave’s ‘shields up’ default allows for privacy centric web browsing.
But moreover, because ads and ad trackers are automatically blocked, page loading speeds are increased and data usage costs are decreased.
Further, Brave benefits include giving users the ability to ‘cut out the middleman’ when it comes to actually viewing ads. By giving the user the option to decide if viewing ads is desired, you are able to monetize your attention.
This ‘win-win’ ecosystem allows users to earn BAT for viewing ads, while allowing advertisers to reach their target audience, thus improving their ROI.
For Brave users who are also content generators, there are additional incentives available to keep pumping out more great stuff. With Brave’s tipping and auto-contribute features, content producers are able to earn more BAT for keeping their visitors attention.
The combination of the default privacy features and the BAT ecosystem make the Brave browser the only choice for the future of the internet.
Disclaimer
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