A fresh Brave install in 2026: sponsored ad wallpapers on new tab page by default (opt out). Brave VPN, News, Talk, Leo (AI), Rewards and other revenue-milking bloat is advertised/pinned by default. Analytics and "phoning home" by default. Google as default search engine in most regions by default. Sponsored search engines like Russian Yandex in CIS countries by default: https://t.co/nCK7ZErytG
Brave has an ad branch that handles advertising within the browser: https://t.co/EwJwKKgWxq. Brave does on-device ad targeting based on cohorts and interests, just like what Chrome used to do and what Google was largely hated for (remember FLoC?). This applies to additional (opt-in) rewarded ads, shipped as part of Brave.
Brave has injected referral IDs to crypto-related URLs entered into the omnibox in the past, intentionally, by design:
https://t.co/hovGMDz8Et
https://t.co/3wdWDEV85H
https://t.co/fo1mD75vAF
Brave also uses dark patterns to drive users away from turning off ads in their browser. For example, an article linked from the "opt out" button in the browser has a wall of text making excuses for ads before the actual steps needed to be taken to disable them: https://t.co/dka1EIMtbw
kind of hypocritical for brave to judge firefox for lesser bullshit, don't you think?
@anchover_ They're always retweet but they never post... and the ones that do post... they never retweet... you never see them go they're always online... no one ever gets off but they're always... they're always retweet but they never post...