Privacy browser Brave under fire for violating users’ trust

The Chromium-based browser, Brave has been profiting from redirect links to affiliate crypto companies.

BRAVE HAS BEEN CAUGHT VIOLATING USERS' TRUST. IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK

In brief

• Brave has been redirecting searches to crypto companies to affiliate links that give it a commission.
• Binance, Coinbase and Trezor are among crypto companies that Brave profits from through affiliate links.
• The company’s CEO apologized and promised that there will be no more links like this.

Brave, the crypto-friendly, privacy-first browser has been earning affiliate commissions by redirecting certain search queries to crypto companies via affiliate links.

Unlike the “opt-in” principle by which the company abides—advertisements are optional on the browser and pay out cryptocurrency to anyone who views them—Brave never asked its 15 million monthly users about these redirects.

A firestorm erupted today after twitter user Yannick Eckl, who goes by “CRYPTONATOR1337,” noticed that when Brave’s users searched for Binance, the browser automatically redirected to an affiliate version of the URL, which Brave profits from. 

Read more: https://decrypt.co/31522/crypto-brave-browser-redirect