Troubleshooting technical issues is much easier when both the user and support agent practice clear communication. For this reason, we have provided the template below for you to fill out with information about your issue. Please provide as much detail as possible so we can most efficiently resolve your problem.
Description of the issue:
How can this issue be reproduced?
Visit a website
Expected result:
Brave Version( check About Brave):
On mobile: 1.69.160, Chromium 128.0.6613.114
On PC: Same results as above
Mobile Device details
Samsung Galaxy A13
Additional Information:
This is regarding two websites I visited one day last week. Neither site had a login. I simply went there to view information. Later in the day, I received emails from both of those websites/companies. I did not expect or appreciate this. How and why were they given my email information?
@JimL,
Unless you entered your email address anywhere or had previously had visited those sites and created an accounts, or if you were logged into your email account and used oAuth to login to the site to view it’s content, it is literally not possible for Brave to have shared this information with the website.
Do you have the URLs of the sites in question so I can test on my end?
These were two sites that I had never visited and there was no logon involved. I visited Armitron.com (a watch site) and americansigncompany.com (a sign making company).
I received an email from Armitron with the subject “Thanks for visiting Armitron” and one from American Sign Company with the subject " Your next purchase at American Sign Company just got better". Until this, I considered Brave to be safe. Now I wonder.
Again, I had never been to the sign company’s website, and if I had been on Armitron’s site, it would have been many years before I even started using Brave.
@JimL First off, Brave wouldn’t have your email. Think about it—when you installed the browser, did Brave ever ask for your email?
You also should realize Brave is very clear about not collecting or sharing user data.
A question to consider is how you found these websites. Could it have been through social media, Google, or other platforms? Many of those use referral links or marketing tools that can connect to your accounts, which might explain receiving something. However, even then, they usually don’t send random emails unless you opted in or shared your info.
If this happened on your desktop and not your phone, it’s also possible that a browser extension could be involved.
The Armitron site I believe I typed in directly and the other was a link provided by Brave when I searched something like “sign making”. I went to these sites from Brave on my phone.
Brave does have my email address. It’s stored for several sites that I wish to auto login. Neither of these sites was on the list. Besides, there was no login when I visited.
I’m starting to feel a little better by how adamant you folks are about Brave not sharing info, but still cannot figure any other way these sites got my actual email address.
@JimL Brave Search you used when you say link provided by Brave?
Main thing I’m ever thinking about is when we use Android, we are automatically signed into Google. A lot of people don’t think about how as they are doing Google searches, that Google is tracking that. Even as we use Brave, Google is able to see anything we search on Google and can kind of track what we click from their search results. Obviously this changes a bit when we speak about Brave Search or other websites not managed by Google.
Where I often try to take a step back with people is I think of those like my mom who will tell me she opened something in her browser, but then I find out all she did was use the Google widget from her home screen. She’d swear up and down that she used Chrome or some web browser, but doesn’t realize the difference.
So I guess just really trying to think back to the exact steps. Where you typed things in, what you clicked on, etc. It may also be something else I’m not thinking of, but was trying to jog memory to see if perhaps could figure out the steps leading up to it.