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That's the definitive answer I was looking for. After I read slewis' comment, I took another look and I still couldn't tell if that was truly the case just from the information on the website. The site text is "...privacy-focused browser that blocks malvertisements, trackers..." but I took that to mean it blocks ads/trackers that aren't part of the Brave+BAT system; and "Users, who opt in, receive fewer but better targeted ads..." I took to mean users to who opt in to using Brave. If I was still on iPhone, I would definitely try it based on slewis' recommendation but I'm getting by really well with IceCat and uBlock Origin on Android. Obviously, that isn't any good for content creators.

My biggest beef with ads is the tracking and Brave seem to have a really nice solution to that. I think a lot of people will like it. Personally, I don't want my machine involved in any of the logistics of getting ads presented to me. I think ads should embedded directly in the content and whatever content providers and advertisers need to do to keep each other honest should be their concern, never the users. That's all they ever should have been allowed to do. Just because they've been able to track users in a creepy kind of way for the past decade or two, doesn't mean it's a good path forward, at least for users. Keeping it local is the least creepy solution, but only if no tracking is not an option and, at least for now, it is.




You say "I think ads should [be] embedded directly in the content .... That's all they ever should have been allowed to do" you seem to be saying "only first party [direct sold, advertisiing brand buys space from publisher and gives publisher an image or video to embed] ads, and no third party tracking or ads". Do I understand you correctly?

The problem is most publishers do not have scale, and (flip side of same coin), together they are too numerous, for publishers to do direct sales to brands of all or even their best ad space (inventory). They must use third parties.

Advertisers, too, want to "buy audience" across many sites, which means tracking in the current ecosystem.

Thus, today, in any of the top browsers that lack ad and tracker blocking, your machine is already deeply involved in "the logistics of getting ads". Almost all ads, even direct sold ones, place via script on page interacting with the main ad server scripts (Google Doubleclick For Publishers [DFP]).

You can't have it both ways: either you need an active user agent that blocks third party cookies and scripts, as Brave and a few others do; or you will have ad logistics running amok on your device, in your browser or webview (which is why we get a 3-7x speed win on Android vs. Chrome). The only path forward is to break the web by blocking third party scripts and trackers. Wishing for publishers to do direct ads as if pasting up ad art on paper won't work.




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