A Free Lunch? - Brave Browser now paying users to view ads

[rcmaehl]

Sources:
Wired
Gizmodo

 

Summary:

Brave Browser has added an opt-in option to be payed for viewing secure, anonymized ads.

 

Quotes/Excerpts:

Quote

If you were on the internet in the late 1990s, you might remember companies like AllAdvantage that promised to pay you to surf the web. These schemes largely disappeared after the dot-com crash. But Brendan Eich thinks his company Brave Software has found a way to revive that old idea. Brave makes a browser based on Google Chrome that blocks tracking scripts and other technologies that spy on your online activity. As a result, it also blocks many web ads. Starting Wednesday, Brave will give users the option to see ads that Eich says will respect your privacy. The ads will appear as desktop notifications, he says, not as replacements for the ads the Brave browser blocks. If you choose to see these ads, you’ll get 70 percent of the revenue they generate. Today, ad networks pay sites like WIRED.com for ad space and web browsers like Brave and Chrome deliver content from those publishers to users. Brave is trying to put the browser in the center of the advertising experience. Instead of paying publishers directly, ad networks would pay Brave, which will pass part of the money to users. By handling advertising in the browser on your device, Brave says it will be able to target ads without sending your data to the cloud, and protect your privacy. When you interact with an ad on Brave, the browser sends notice to the company's servers, but doesn't include any identifying information. Eventually, the company plans to offer a service that will replace any blocked ads on a publisher's site with ads placed by Brave and give those publishers a cut of the ad revenue. Eich says Brave will only replace ads on sites that opt into its service.

 

My Thoughts:
Interesting. This may be something I may look into. It's supposedly equivalent to $5 a month from the reddit threads I've been reading. While not a lot, It'd still be about half my Amazon Prime subscription a year and is definitely an interesting prospect. Would you take $5 a month for ads, assuming they were privacy minded and didn't send info back? Can we trust companies regardless not to use supercookies once we actually view an advertised product? I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this. In the meantime ublock will stay enabled... except on some very specific sites.

[Emberstone]

13 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

Would you take $5 a month for ads, assuming they were privacy minded and didn't send info back?

Yes. I can buy Sekiro next year.

[LukeSavenije]

you're paying my lunch? sure

[emosun]

17 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

It's supposedly equivalent to $5 a month

so 60$ a year

or.... one 8 hour shift at 7.25 an hour

or , skip lunch one day a month

[Totallycasual]

I really don't mind ads so long as they aren't resource hungry things that take a long time to load up, have pop up thingies or loud sounds etc.  If it's just an image advertising a product with a link i'd gladly get rid of my ad blocker+ no-script addon. 

[aezakmi]

10 minutes ago, Emberstone said:

Yes. I can buy Sekiro next year.

 

[ARikozuM]

14 minutes ago, emosun said:

so 60$ a year

or.... one 8 hour shift at 7.25 an hour

or , skip lunch one day a month

But you're getting some money without having to actually work. Same reason people, like myself, mine and invest in the stock market. 

[captain_to_fire]

[Chett_Manly]

This is so stupid!

 

Where are the people with money to buy things they see in ads, yet are watching ads for money? Is this an indictment of the welfare state, ads trying to get that government check?

 

How effective can it be to advertise to people so broke they are watching ads to make pennies? 

[schwellmo92]

Last I checked Microsoft Rewards you earn $9~ a month and it’s less intrusive.

[schwellmo92]

46 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

But you're getting some money without having to actually work. Same reason people, like myself, mine and invest in the stock market. 

Well you are working because you have to watch the ads.

[Emberstone]

1 hour ago, aezakmi said:

 

I will not dishonor myself before Papa Miyazaki.

[RotoCoreOne]

I wonder if you could run multiple pcs or VMs and view ads all day.

[williamcll]

1 hour ago, Emberstone said:

Yes. I can buy Sekiro next year.

Just in time for borderlands 3

[Guest]

Pirated photoshop the other day and It installed Brave browser - its some sketchy stuff! Would not recommend. 

[Giganthrax]

Does this work only in the west or all over the world?

 

I can already imagine some IT fella switching the entire company they work at onto Brave Browser and just racking in the cash from every computer there.  

[Giganthrax]

1 hour ago, RotoCoreOne said:

I wonder if you could run multiple pcs or VMs and view ads all day.

I'm guessing they'd be able to see your IP or something to prevent that from happening. 

[hayden1881]

 

[duncannah]

I tried this a while ago, doesn't work really well and haven't encountered any sites that make use of it

[emosun]

6 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

But you're getting some money without having to actually work

aka skipping a meal

[Bananasplit_00]

Nah I'm sticking with Firefox for my privacy

[Doobeedoo]

Yeah didn't MS have something like this anyway. 

[Sauron]

Quote

The ads will appear as desktop notifications

NOPE, can't pay me enough for that...

 

Actually maybe I'll just make a VM for this and have it run in the background.

13 hours ago, Chett_Manly said:

How effective can it be to advertise to people so broke they are watching ads to make pennies? 

Well, if the alternative is to have everyone just block the ads... besides, ads can be about "free" things too like, say, Fortnite.

11 hours ago, Giganthrax said:

I'm guessing they'd be able to see your IP or something to prevent that from happening. 

Just spoof it with tor or something

[Prariedog13]

Free Lunch?

4 tbone steaks and a pitcher of tap soda please

don't forget the gold-encrusted chocolate bar

thanks

 

btw the total is 453.34 without tax

[dtaflorida]

Bing rewards is already how I get xbox gold membership and game passes. This scheme in comparison has slightly lower payout.