Welcome to this week’s BAT Community Update! Thank you to u/murphD for his contributions!

Brave’s Concerns with the Client-Hints Proposal

One of Brave’s main goals is to improve privacy on the Web, so that everyone can enjoy and interact with the Web while protecting their personal information.



The primary way Brave does this is by building a wide array of privacy protections that are on by default into our browsers, across all of our supported platforms.



A second way Brave works to improve privacy on the Web is through Web standards. For example, Brave advocates for privacy on several W3C committees, most significantly of which (for privacy) is PING, the Privacy Interest Group. As part of PING, Brave works to ensure that new Web standards don’t introduce new privacy risks, to Brave users or Web users in general.



This post discusses a new proposed Web standard, Client Hints, and why Brave is concerned that it harms Web privacy.



Read the full post here: https://brave.com/brave-and-client-hints/

Notice: An update on Brave Rewards UI

Thanks for using Brave Rewards! At the end of every month, we have a claim process to make sure you are sent BAT for enabling Ads.



It has come to our attention that due to a timing difference our UI made some of you anxious that BAT were taken away. We want to assure you that this was not the case as the bug only affects the browser-side display of estimated value, not the real earnings you will receive. Any value that was deducted will appear automatically next cycle as part of next month’s claim process – and we’re fixing our UI accordingly.



Read the full bulletin here: https://community.brave.com/t/notice-an-update-on-brave-rewards-ui/59181

GROWTH: Brave reaches 1.95M DAU as of beginning of May, 6.178M MAU as of end of April

https://mobile.twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1126344850104696833

BRAVE ADS: Brendan Eich (CEO) confirms over 1300 advertisers are on the waiting list for Brave Ads

COMMUNITY: For the Chinese-speaking BAT fans, here is a Wechat group for you. We have close to 100 members now. You are welcome to join the gang. (Fanmade, unofficial)

COMMUNITY: Nananananananananana BAT CAKES! Yummy!

BAT Community Merch Giveaway Winners!

The winners for our BAT Community Daily Merch Giveaways for this week are:

Monday (Reddit): Olivanders1989

Tuesday (Twitter): @arinakhotifa24

Wednesday (Facebook): Oscar Beighton

Thursday (Contributor Special): slugmg12

Click here to see pics of previous giveaway winners rocking their BAT/Brave merch!: https://imgur.com/a/lhF1G9I



Be sure to tune in to our social media channels every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday to participate in our daily merch giveaways for your chance to win!

Featured Creators

It’s official. Verified on Twitch. Even Added a Panel Banner. Over 1K Followers now asking about Brave/BAT.

Client Updates

Dev Channel v0.66.59

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v0.66.59

Beta Channel v0.65.89

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v0.65.89

Release Channel v.0.63.55

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v0.63.55

Release Notes

Fixed display of Ad Rewards earnings in settings panel. (#4008)

Removed expiration date from the rewards UI for grants received from ads. (#4169)

Upgraded Chromium to 74.0.3729.131. (#4278)

Brave Team Tweets

Over 1300… — BrendanEich (@BrendanEich) May 6, 2019 How many ad accounts are on the waitlist?

Today we passed the 100K followers mark on Twitter! We're grateful to all of you for your support and look forward to many more great things in 2019 together. 💥 — BasicAttentionToken (@AttentionToken) May 6, 2019 100,000 Twitter followers!

Sounds like FB listened to my talk at https://t.co/uzi24Xgioj from mid-August 2017.https://t.co/2ncWXyGvrh — BrendanEich (@BrendanEich) May 3, 2019 Hmm… Facebook wants to make their own cryptocurrency payment system…

Use the FB mobile site in Brave for now. More on this soon. — BrendanEich (@BrendanEich) May 4, 2019 What’s the team up to with ad blocking?

Think of today's tracking as drones disguised as flyers in your local store, but detach & follow you home, then invade your house & underpants-gnome your sock drawer. We ship a browser-based catalog, everyone gets it, you interact in your house w/o anyone spying; anonymous order. — BrendanEich (@BrendanEich) May 6, 2019 Think of tracking as drones following you…

Encountered this bizarre example of how YouTube advertising has gone off the rails.



Was scrolling in-app in YT, and encountered this ad for an app to get adult-rated pics.



Weird. Where does the clickthrough lead to… pic.twitter.com/YfIaSozjaF — Luke Mulks (@lukemulks) May 3, 2019 YouTube ads are showing ads for adult pics, but then linking to an app download?

Your reminder to check and make sure Google hasn't auth'd you into your web browser.



Or, just get @brave and have a better browser that doesn't sell you out. https://t.co/zmhVAXchEu — Luke Mulks (@lukemulks) May 7, 2019 Has Google authenticated you on Chrome yet? You should check. Or use Brave.

There's so much work to stabilize what we have released while introducing to other platforms that I would imagine much of the continued focus will be on daily active use and daily active utility.



Not into vanity metrics.

Utility is everything. — Luke Mulks (@lukemulks) May 7, 2019 Vanity Metrics = No. Utility = Yes.

Time for an epic giveaway! I have 100 limited edition, sequentially numbered, gold and copper, 2-inch coins. 20 of them are up for grabs! Follow and retweet for a chance to win. First coin to go will be number 075 (copper). Winner chosen Friday, May 10 at 3pm EST. pic.twitter.com/ZSr4uqEd1O — Sampson (@BraveSampson) May 4, 2019 BAT in physical form? Not really. But Sampson is giving away some wonderful, limited-edition Brave coins!

Brave aims to keep you and your data private; that's our top priority. Part of this means making indirect calls for things like extension updates, spell-check dictionaries, and more. Here are a few things we proxy on your behalf 🙂



Source: https://t.co/TGthmAHXwy pic.twitter.com/WnDwYspXd2 — Sampson (@BraveSampson) May 6, 2019 Brave proxies things to keep you private.

Google now says it opposes finger printing and work arounds of tracking prevention. But isn’t this what it was caught doing not so long ago against Safari users? And youtube private users? https://t.co/ZQQAWR7qTB pic.twitter.com/ZlrRY3VfXe — Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) May 7, 2019 Is Google telling the truth?

Re @Quantcast, which is now subject to a statutory inquiry by the Irish Data Protection Commission, @DPCIreland is using the Irish Data Protection Act’s Section 110, which means the infringements are “suspected” rather than merely “possible”. #GPS19 @padraichalpin @conorhumphries pic.twitter.com/fbgs39KKda — Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) May 4, 2019 Is Quantcast in trouble with the Irish Data Protection Commission?

Update for Brave desktop users who had enabled Brave Ads: we're addressing the display issue that some of you reported in Brave Rewards, and sending you a 5 BAT grant to thank you for your patience. See details here: https://t.co/QCEASFydaD — Brave Software (@brave) May 8, 2019 Brave offers up 5 BAT grant for a display issue problem.

I will be sharing @Brave’s insights as a tech innovator that protects privacy at @TACD_Consumers on 3rd-4th, and at the @FTC on the 5th. — Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) May 10, 2019 Johnny sharing Brave’s insight at TransAtlantic Consumer Dialog

I think that our colleagues at the IAB need to rethink this carefully. This text from v2 of #IABTCF is directly against the text of the GDPR, and decisions already taken by European regulators. L IAB ILITY pic.twitter.com/JNMTyAUTIs — Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) May 9, 2019 IAB is lawsuit bait.

BAT/Brave in the News

Johnny appears in The Register and speaks on Google’s cookie blocking feature.

Johnny Ryan, chief policy and industry relations officer at browser maker Brave, expressed disbelief that Google makes it sound as if it’s opposed to tracking.



“Google isn’t just the biggest tracker, it’s the biggest workaround actor of tracking prevention yet,” he said, pointing to the company’s efforts to bypass tracking protection in Apple’s Safari browser.



Read the full text here: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/05/08/google_cookie_diet_could_starve_competitors/

Brendan Eich speaks to Vox on Google’s privacy changes

“By not changing the default, by making it optional, Google is relying on people not changing it,” Brendan Eich, co-founder and CEO of Brave, a privacy-oriented web browser and thus a Chrome competitor, told Recode. “Chrome users may never know this is an option.”



Eich estimates that people opting out would be in the “single digits.” Google declined to speculate or disclose the percentage of current Chrome users that change their browser settings on the world’s most popular web browser. Chrome has a more than 60 percent global market share.



Read the full text here: https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/9/18537250/google-privacy-tracking-cookies

Inventor of the ad exchange and former CEO of AppNexus Brian O’Kelley makes a Brave mention in his latest post.

“Here’s the thing, Sundar Pichai. We hear lots of talk from Silicon Valley CEOs about how they are going to address privacy and other ethical issues. Actions are what count. You have some of the smartest people in the world at your company. You build incredible, consumer-centric products that have changed the world. If you wanted to build a privacy-centric browser, you could (see and their attempts to protect privacy and enable ads). You could refuse to let ads run on dangerous content that facilitates misinformation and hate (see Infowars and Breitbart).”



Read the full text here: https://www.quora.com/What-is-your-opinion-of-Googles-new-move-to-update-its-privacy-features-so-that-it-forces-users-to-take-over-the-responsibility-of-their-data/answer/Brian-OKelley?ch=99&share=079217bd&srid=n7Z

News You Should Know

Google now wants to crack down on cookies to convince you it cares about privacy

This move has the “semblance” of a pro-privacy effort, because of course the importance of cookies has waned a bit in recent years, thanks in part to the impact of smartphones and mobile browsers on web activity. So it’s questionable how courageous and pro-privacy a move this really is.



Read the full text here: https://news.yahoo.com/google-now-wants-crack-down-220418566.html

Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over Selling Customers’ Location Data

The lawsuits come after a Motherboard investigation showed AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile sold phone location data that ended up with bounty hunters, and The New York Times covered an instance of Verizon selling data.



Read the full text here: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3k3dv3/verizon-tmobile-sprint-att-class-action-lawsuit-selling-phone-location-data

Apple CEO Tim Cook talks protecting customers’ private data, limiting screen time: ‘You are not our product’

Apple CEO Tim Cook is worried – about the protection of personal data, kids’ relationships with their devices, and the amount of time consumers are spending on devices.



Read the full text here: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/apple-ceo-tim-cook-talks-protecting-customers-private/story?id=62808679

Roaring Fans

30 percent faster, removes trackers and ads, get paid for watching ads, easily tip content creator. Sounds like a no brainer. — JMACK (@JasonMack99) May 9, 2019

Recently discovered @brave and its now the only browser I use! — BrandReady (@BrandReadyCo) May 8, 2019

I love the ⁦@brave⁩ browser. It’s my default web browser. Way faster than Firefox or Chrome. A smooth user experience without ads. I look forward to when Brave rewards are available in Detroit #bravebrowser #brave #BAT https://t.co/DgRk88GKA4 — Cerberus Vamps (@CerberusVamps) May 9, 2019

From Reddit: