Anyone tried the BRAVE web browser?

[Trixter]

Not busting your horns, but why is it morally worse to block most adds and only allow their own?

- If Brave replaces ads, then it can't truly adblock everything. If I'm adblocking, I want *no* ads.
- If sitting on a high horse atop Moral Mountain, websites need their adverts to make money to keep the lights on. "Earn rewards by opting into our privacy-respecting ads and help give publishers back their fair share of Internet revenue" sounds good at first glance, until you realize that everyone makes money except the website you're visiting.
- This activity is wrapped in the "take charge of your privacy" banner, when it's really just about stealing ad revenue from the content creators.
- They commit to blocking other website "data-grabbing ads and trackers" -- but offer no proof that the ads and trackers Brave replaces them with aren't just as bad.

The whole thing feels scummy to me.

[ngtwolf]

The whole thing feels scummy to me.

I'm in agreement here and because the whole website is dumbed down to benefits the user receives and not what they're actually doing, it's hard to tell the level of shadiness. If you are replacing a websites banners with your own banners, then that kinda sucks. You're basically making money off the backs of the real content providers and cutting off their revenue. I totally agree with blocking shady ads, the ones that do weird popups or take over pages or send you to criminal websites (sites that will try to tell you that your computer is infected and send you to some indian call center 'fake microsoft' to fix). However, sites that use simple image type banners are perfectly fair and i'm okay letting those through.

What's also not clear and maybe someone knows, the 'approved banners', are they approved banners that are just images without any type of tracking.. or are they instead approving, say, a facebook ad that generates revenue for them but at the same time blocking the same (tracking) facebook ad that generates revenue for the publisher.

Either way, I used to not run any ad blockers because i was okay with ads for sites... unfortunately there are a few sites i go to with super scammy / browser killing ads that killed it for the rest, and there is no good ad blocker that blocks only bad ads but lets the good ones through. There are a few ad blockers that claim to do that, but they barely work. A good example is to go to a torrent site and do a quick browse to see if your browser goes to crap. Ublock is the only blocker i've found that actually successfully blocks bad stuff, but unfortunately it blocks legit ads as well.

[glitch]

Yeah, the ads that cripple browsers and the cases of malware being delivered over ad networks got me using adblockers on everything. Before that, I just blackhole DNSed some of the more prolific crappy ad servers, like DoubleClick.

[Trixter]

I use ublock origin for blocking everything, and then I disable it selectively for websites I wish to support. I'm not worried about tracking or privacy because 1. Those have been compromised for over a decade anyway (and if anyone thinks blocking a cookie stops tracking, I have a bridge to sell them), and 2. The only info they can steal is the info I put online, and I don't put everything online.

[tipc]

Ok for instance, my laptop has never been online. I have downloaded stuff and ported it over with a memory card or usb cable. I like it that way.

My xeon jalopy has never been online, yet. It's mostly a matter of dumping a modernist os on it, then I don't care if it's online or not. Thus far Win7 and Win 2008 r2 it won't swallow. Haven't investigated much, had to stick it in the closet to straiten up my bedroom (it's finally happening!).

My newest HP Prodesk hasn't been online yet. I only turned it on once, with the h/d unplugged, just to see if it actually works. I may keep that offline, if I keep it, not sure. I'm actually looking to sell most of my crap maybe, and keep just one computer. I have twice as much money into the xeon, which isn't much, and it doesn't have a respectable h/d or os. The Prodesk has 7 and an 8.1 upgrafe dvd. I had a hankering for a real desktop unit, just did, and it was brand new and cheap. But I also have that lga2066 Supermicro board, so I don't know what I'll wind up keeping in the end.

I ramble a lot. Has anyone noticed? I don't have (much) to hide LOL. I just feel better when say my laptoy p at least is 98% "clean". And personal. Computers have become less and less personal for a long time. I think it sucks. I think a bunch of people should get together and write, from the ground up, a new browser, with the disclaimer that if anyone slips some sneaky stuff into it, they'll be outed as shills or agents of whoever paid them to do so. And curs also.

I've toyed with the idea of setting up a server and for a modest fee providing no nonsense email accounts and whatever else. Because when I say I won't give your info to anyone, I won't do it *ever*. There is such thing as a court order though. I would not provide a haven for criminals though. There are limits I guess to how far a provider can go to ensure no skanky, illegal or even dangerous traffic is going on under their nose. Some things need to be left up to the authorities I guess. I guess I'm a libertarian to an extent. But not like this growing contingent of so called libertarians, I see them as just anarchists, who believe NAMBLA is a legitimate lobbyist group.

It used to be popular, maybe still is, to defy the autjorities when they come looking for dirt on someone dangerous. I hate overly intrusive, dishonest government and law enforcement as much as anyone. But why wouldn't I want a dangerous criminal brought to justice if I had the opportunity?

[KC9UDX]

Uncle Sam put everything online whether I liked it or not. I think you can opt out of that now, but impress I move that's irrelevant for me.

[KC9UDX]

Good luck running an email server in 2020. You'll be blacklisted within hours of every time you spend 400 man hours getting off the black list.

[tipc]

blacklisted by who? I never said it was practical necessarily. It would be nice if a group got together who were obsessive about privacy, for legitimate reasons, and did the dirty work of actually providing it.

[Trixter]

I've been running my own email server for decades. The trick is picking a network block that hasn't been blacklisted by spammers (and even if it has, you can get off of all the lists, it just takes time and effort).

[Trixter]

Ok for instance, my laptop has never been online.
...
My xeon jalopy has never been online, yet.
...
My newest HP Prodesk hasn't been online yet.

Then how are you accessing this forum?