Welcome to this week’s BAT Community Update!

Blog: Brave Tops Browser First-Run Network Traffic Results

What this post explores today is how browsers behave by default, on their first-run, with no preexisting user profile. By default, Brave blocks third-party trackers (and the ads that rely on them). It also prevents fingerprinting, auto-play of media, crypto-mining, and access to media input devices. These aren’t always features offered by other browsers out of the box.



I decided to explore this topic more thoroughly a couple of weeks ago. I reviewed several web browsers’ network activity on their first-run, and shared some commentary and explanation for what was found via Twitter. Today, I’d like to cover the results as a whole, as well as talk a bit about how you can do a similar review.

https://brave.com/brave-tops-browser-first-run-network-traffic-results/

Brave Support Team: Brave/Language I/O Webinar

On September 26th, Asad Syed, Brave’s support team manager, will be jointly running a webinar with Language I/O, one of Brave’s translation providers. Tune in to learn more about how Brave’s support system works behind the scenes and how we leverage Language I/O’s powerful technology in order to serve an international user-base.



Learn more here: https://languageio.com/blog/webinar-creating-ultimate-global-customer-experience

Video: Jumping to the Brave Browser after using both Google Chrome and Chromium for more than 10 years. After looking into many browsers I settled on Brave for me.

September 5-Friend Giveaway: Get 5 of your friends to join the forum on BATCommunity.org & score a BAT/Brave swag kit each!

Who wants some new BAT/Brave swag to rock this fall season? We know we do!



You and 5 of your friends can each win a swag kit consisting of one of each item in the BAT/Brave web store by signing up to join the BAT Community forum! The forum is THE go-to place to discuss all things BAT!



The giveaway officially opens today (Sep. 13) and will end on Monday, September 30th.



Click here for more details: https://forum.batcommunity.org/t/september-5-friend-giveaway-get-5-of-your-friends-to-join-the-forum-on-batcommunity-org-score-a-bat-brave-swag-kit-each/1040

Client Updates

Release Channel v0.68.138

Fixed reward panel not loading and appearing blank in certain cases. (#6012)

Upgraded Chromium to 77.0.3865.75. (#5966)

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v0.68.138

Beta Channel v0.70.99

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v0.70.99

Dev Channel v0.71.77

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v0.71.77

Brave Team Tweets

Resetting one of my rigs, and reminded of this nonsense in Windows 10. Were you aware that Windows 10 has a personalized advertising ID for you? pic.twitter.com/pXqKaxFyiP — Sampson (@jonathansampson) September 14, 2019 Did you know?

We're a private company, these docs are not public, but Thiel has no personal share as noted; Founders Fund has small share with no special rights.



Moreover, if some takeover in the future tried to subvert our privacy, we'd be busted by me + many open source watchers and burned. — BrendanEich (@BrendanEich) September 17, 2019 What if Brave was taken over?

So much for the notion that Google wants the GDPR. (If the GDPR were enforced, Google would be a different company) https://t.co/pZHxgsCNoO — Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) September 14, 2019 Google does not love GDPR. </3

CEO of tracking industry trade body gallops in to the fray once more to defend the honor of the data selling / profiling industry… https://t.co/fTwtFJVHj6 — Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) September 15, 2019 When a CEO says tracking is a practice that has been around for decades… does that make it okay?

Brave wins! What does your browser do with a blank profile? And with whom does it communicate? @bravesampson recently reviewed network activity from 8 popular web browsers to answer this question.https://t.co/AZSphSvCTb — Brave Software (@brave) September 18, 2019 What happens when you open your browser for the first time?

Note to self: self-regulation of privacy and data protection is daft nonsense. — Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) September 18, 2019 How does Johnny feel about self-regulation?

Facebook European rep on stage at #DigitalSummitDublin presenting a very worrying view of what anonymity means. Certainly one at odds with the definition in the GDPR. — Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) September 20, 2019 Some companies have a different idea of what anonymous means.

I spoke with @Digiday’s @seb_joseph about the adtech privacy mess https://t.co/IFz6GqwcYj pic.twitter.com/jltXp3DPiT — Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) September 20, 2019 Johnny chatting it up with Digiday.

BAT/Brave in the News

How Blockchain Is Changing Digital Marketing

Blockchain is changing digital marketing by removing companies’ abilities to pull data from customers without also offering to reimburse them for its value. For instance, the Brave browser is changing how users interact with online advertising. Rather than simply being pelted with online ads, Brave users opt-into viewing ads and receive Basic Attention Tokens (BATs) for the ads with which they interact. It’s a completely new way of viewing advertising, by trading the value of online attention, rather than simply the trading of space for potential ad sales.



Read the full text here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2019/09/18/how-blockchain-is-changing-digital-marketing/#485a3ba016eb

Brave’s Johnny Ryan and IAB Europe clash over GDPR real-time bidding legality

Dr Johnny Ryan conducted a provocative Dmexco presentation this week exploring what he sees as the increasingly questionable legality of real-time bidding under GDPR.



In his colorful presentation, Ryan painted data regulators as the forest guardians of Tolkien lore, awakening to challenge the programmatic advertising status quo.



“Now the Ents are awakening, they are terrifying. They may just bring down the castle,” he said.



Read the full text here: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/09/13/braves-johnny-ryan-and-iab-europe-clash-over-gdpr-real-time-bidding-legality

What We Learned at Dmexco 2019, Ad Tech’s Week in the Spotlight

In attendance at Dmexco was Johnny Ryan, Chief Policy and Industry Relations Officer at Brave, who echoed the ICO’s Ali Shah in expressing doubt about the legitimacy of the industry’s tracking methods. In particular, he cast doubt on a recently unveiled initiative from the IAB Tech Lab to find a more advanced solution to third-party cookies.



“The IAB and others have proposed to ID everybody on earth so that those who want privacy can thereby reveal it. I do not see how this could pass the GDPR test,” he said in a statement sent to Adweek.



Read the full text here: https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/dmexco-2019-what-we-learned-ad-tech-programmatic-privacy/

News You Should Know

Congress wants Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon emails as probe heats up

The House Judiciary Committee has ramped up for the fall season, issuing demands for huge piles of documentation from Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google as its antitrust probe into Big Tech grows.



The committee launched the bipartisan inquiry in June, seeking in part to determine “whether existing laws are adequate” to the task of regulating the sprawling tech titans that power the 21st-century economy. As part of that probe, the committee has now issued lengthy requests for information to the four companies digging deeply into the question of competition.



Read the full text here: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/09/congress-wants-facebook-google-apple-and-amazon-emails-as-probe-heats-up/

‘No basis for government to interfere’: Facebook fights new rules

Facebook has taken aim at Australia’s competition watchdog for recommending “dangerous” privacy changes and wrongly conflating the social media giant with search engine Google as part of its world-first inquiry into the tech companies.



Read the full text here: https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/no-basis-for-government-to-interfere-facebook-fights-new-rules-20190915-p52rex.html

Amid a privacy crisis, Facebook now wants to put a camera on your TV

On Wednesday, Facebook announced it would take the concept a step further with Portal TV, a small black camera that can be clipped onto the top of users’ TVs or sit below them on a stand — and it’s introducing this product to even more markets worldwide.



Read the full text here: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/18/tech/facebook-portal-tv/index.html

Roaring Fans

I did the same thing! I was looking something up on @Wikipedia today and saw the donation banner. Since I was using the @brave browser, and knew about Wikipedia becoming Brave Verified, I decided to send them a tip straight from the browser.



THIS is the power of cryptocurrency. https://t.co/oWyoyCoEMD — Tijs van Limburg (@tijis311) September 19, 2019

I've stopped using that piece of crap @YouTube app! It's infested with ads! If I want to buy something, I'll search for it. Don't need @YouTube to bombard me and shove down my throat all their garbage ads!!!

I've been using @brave for a few months now… they cut that shit OUT! — ⚜𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔫𝔱𝔯𝔢𝔭𝔯𝔢𝔫𝔢𝔲𝔯​™️⚜ (@The_UNLEASHD) September 19, 2019

From Reddit: