Announcement: BAT & Access79 partner to bring custom limited-edition demi-fine BAT ring & BAT dog tag necklace to BAT fans. Available now for preorder!

Over the last four months, Brave Ads users may have seen ads for Access79, a try-before-you-buy luxury jewelry service that joined the Brave Ads platform in September.



While advertising with Brave, Access79 has been working with our team behind the scenes to create two special commemorative wearables for fans of Basic Attention Token—dreamt up with the spirit of BAT fans in mind: our galvanizers, explorers, and believers. The BAT community itself played an essential role in the product development process: members were asked to share feedback on Twitter via a sequence of polls during the various stages of production. Today, we are pleased to announce that the demi-fine Limited Edition BAT Signet Ring and the Limited Edition BAT Dog Tag necklace are now available for preorder on Access79’s website!

The BAT Signet Ring and BAT Dog Tag necklace each boast a polished, minimalistic design featuring an embossed BAT logo outlined by hand in black rhodium. Each piece is crafted with recycled sterling silver and available in either white or yellow gold finishes. They are unisex and super comfortable.



Visit Access79’s website and reserve your BAT Signet Ring and BAT Dog Tag necklace today: https://access79.com/brave-collaboration



We hope you enjoy wearing these beautiful pieces as much as we enjoyed creating them for you!

Decrypt: “Watch out Google: Brave surpasses 350,000 publisher milestone”

Brave, the crypto-friendly browser courageously battling against both advertisements and colossal competition from Google, has hit a milestone of 350,000 registered Brave rewards publishers.



Brave’s rewards publishers are websites that have registered to receive Brave rewards. These are given out when a user decides to send a tip to their desired website, using the Basic Attention Token (BAT).



This latest milestone indicates an impressive 820% jump in less than a year, with Brave relaying a comparatively lesser 38,000 publishers back in January 2019.

Watch out Google: Brave surpasses 350,000 publisher milestone https://t.co/jZNUDQCPii — Brave Software (@brave) December 18, 2019

Client Updates

Dev Channel v1.3.70

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v1.3.70

Beta Channel v1.2.31

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v1.2.31

Release Channel v1.1.23

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v1.1.23

Release notes:

Upgraded Chromium to 79.0.3945.88. (#7435)

Brave Team Tweets

Working with MetaMask now on a plan for good comparability. Working on the implementation in 2019 too. — Brian R. Bondy (@brianbondy) December 18, 2019 Brave is working with MetaMask to ensure better comparability with the in-browser wallet.

This 💯. https://t.co/9OL7TtuReS



I'm going to break down the history of what @brave has aimed to to do from the beginning, and has brought to life with @AttentionToken over the past few years.



First, it's been about building an actual alternative with Privacy, by default. — Luke Mulks | lukemulks.eth (@lukemulks) December 17, 2019 Go on a historical journey with Brave!

Privacy dumpster fire progression in two diagrams. https://t.co/2DyjoYQZkB — Luke Mulks | lukemulks.eth (@lukemulks) December 19, 2019 Has privacy really become this bad in the last ten years?

– $BAT is supported as an option on the @terniotoken visa Blockcard (use crypto wherever visa is accepted)

– We have partnered with @TheGivingBlock to bring $BAT to non-profits

– In Q1 we aim to integrate redemption options in Rewards with the TAP Network. — Luke Mulks | lukemulks.eth (@lukemulks) December 16, 2019 So what can you do with BAT?

We are working diligently on incentives for user to enable Brave Rewards. It's a hot topic. — BrendanEich (@BrendanEich) December 15, 2019

Brave has never been anti-ad, or anti-data for that matter.



It isn’t complicated:



If the advertising is dependent upon, or uses 3rd parties to collect my data in the background, Brave shields people to protect them from that invasive behavior. — Luke Mulks | lukemulks.eth (@lukemulks) December 15, 2019 We’re not anti-data or anti-ad, but we are anti-tracking.

By blocking 3rd party data collection by default, Brave shifts control back to people, who then determine who, how, where and what data they elect to share across the web.



The fundamental mission supports agency and empowerment. — Luke Mulks | lukemulks.eth (@lukemulks) December 15, 2019

If the ad requests go to google or another 3rd party domain, dropping cookies and passing user data in the requests, we block them. If the ad is site-served, we do not block it. — Luke Mulks | lukemulks.eth (@lukemulks) December 16, 2019 More about cookies and 3rd party blocking from Luke

BAT/Brave in the News

5 industries that demonstrate how blockchains go beyond finance

Brave is a new browser that sees to attack each layer of inefficiency in the browser ecosystem. This new model uses a blockchain to eliminate the middlemen that today take more than half the revenue. Instead of going to Google or Facebook, for example, advertisers will list directly onto Brave’s blockchain-based browser. Both advertisers and publishers get more value, and consumers get fewer but better targeted ads.



Read the full text here: https://www.oreilly.com/radar/5-industries-that-demonstrate-how-blockchains-go-beyond-finance/

6 Reasons Why You Must Switch To Brave Browser Now

In order to address this issue and create a new standard for an Open Web, Brave Browser was created. Its recent release in version 1.0 strengthens more than ever the innovative advertising model at the heart of Basic Attention Token. I will therefore explain to you through 6 reasons why it is time for you to regain control of your privacy on the Internet by putting Google Chrome aside for the benefit of Brave Browser.



Read the full text here: https://medium.com/@ssaurel/6-reasons-why-you-must-switch-to-brave-browser-now-d48e528d3ac4

Google Chrome Alternatives: The 4 Best Options For People Who Care About Privacy

Google Chrome users are not having a good time of late. At the start of this year, people found out they might not be able to use their favorite ad blocking extensions anymore after Google confirmed changes dubbed Manifest V3.



This week, it emerged that more changes could be coming to an upcoming version of Google Chrome that put web and app developers first at the risk of user privacy.



Many people have had enough, but there are a lot of other browser options out there that care about your privacy. Here are four you can try out right now.



Read the full text here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/12/08/google-chrome-alternatives-the-4-best-options-for-people-who-care-about-privacy/#4301c42b7809

News You Should Know

Can DuckDuckGo replace Google search while offering better privacy?

Google has a weakness, privacy, which DuckDuckGo attacks. Indeed, it describes itself as “the internet privacy company” where Google is obviously “the internet advertising company”.



Read the full text here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2019/dec/12/duckduckgo-google-search-engine-privacy

UK regulator says the future of RTB “hangs in the balance” in early 2020

Some of what is happening now appears to us to be unlawful, based upon the evidence we have seen to date. The future of RTB is both in the balance and in the hands of all the organisations involved.



Read the full text here: https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2019/12/adtech-and-the-data-protection-debate-where-next/

How much data are you sharing this holiday season?

Buried deep in all the legal jargon are key bits of personal information that we might not want companies to have. By skipping past this information, we could be agreeing to anything from our first born child for a fake social media site to the literal shirt off our backs to win an iPad.



That’s why we read a handful of privacy policies from popular services you might use this busy travel season to see what kind of data they collect. Take a look at what you’re agreeing to:

Roaring Fans

From Reddit: