Mozilla Founder’s ‘Brave’ New Browser Blocks Ads By Default

The website also revealed that fearless protects users against “Malvertising” – ads which can actually install malware on a user’s device without the user being any the wiser. The reason is that the browser will not run trackers and adverts, which are known to slow down the time it takes for pages to load.

All in all, the new fearless browser promises it will provide exceptional privacy to its users, disclosing extremely limited information to publishers and advertisers, while keeping personally identifiable data out of their reach.

The ethical dilemma over whether or not to use an ad-blocker stems from an unsolved problem of how advertising is implemented on the Web. It’s a new thing for mobile ads but we’re hoping this will make everything we see on our small screens relevant, timely, and just what you need.

“He added”, With enough people blocking ads, the web’s main funding model is in jeopardy.

We will cover courageous and any other crypto-powered browsers, as information becomes available.

For publishers, it means that they can get more than half of their revenues and the 15 percent will go to the browser’s developers.

Fearless is presenting its browser as a way of improving both speed and privacy when navigating the internet, eliminating data-consuming ads and tracking software to improve loading times by up to four fold. User’s revenue can be used to pay micro-payments to publishers they like, and in return ads are blocked on that site.

While ad-blockers seem great to users there is an ongoing ethical debate about how they should be applied to web content. While the common sense reasons to use an ad-blocker are about an uninterrupted browsing experience, there has been increasing controversy regarding the practice. “Some call it advertising, others privacy”, he explains.

The browser is open source. Although some say “mobile” is the threat we should be concerned about, Eich argued that the Web is co-evolving with smartphones in a healthy way.

“At Brave, we’re building a solution created to avert war and give users the fair deal they deserve for coming to the Web to browse and contribute”, Eich wrote.

Still, whether “Brave” can reach critical mass is doubtful.

In addition, Boyd notes that launching an ad-defying project like fearless could also ensnare the browser in a tangle of legal battles with advertisers. Ars Technica writer Sebastian Anthony went so far as to say fearless sounded like nothing more than a “cash-grab”.

Eich doesn’t believe that ad tracking is a two-way street, but rather a predatory practice that encourages websites, including this one, to target you with revenue generating ads.

Fearless will insert ads by default in a few standard-sized spaces discovered through a cloud robot – which itself might be considered programmatic advertising.

The browser, however, will not be looking to disrupt the revenue streams that are associated with the advertisements.