I’m talking about sponsored images and the new Binance widget.
I would’ve complained months ago if I’d noticed sponsored images when it first dropped. However, I had background images turned off entirely, and so although the sponsored images were enabled, I didn’t see them.
When I first saw the Binance widget, I immediately was concerned that malware had been installed on my machine. I had never heard of Binance, but I had heard of cryptocurrency miners and other related malware, so that was my first conclusion.
Upon Googling, I found the press announcement, and learned how to disable it, and noticed the option to disable sponsored images as well.
And here’s my problem. My browser is my home. I spend a lot of time in it. Brave the company and its community have built my home–at no cost to me–and I am grateful. And I understand that Brave is trying to pioneer new business models, and that this is an uphill battle. I am sympathetic.
However, I’m not okay with my home’s builders, having turned the home over to me, coming in unannounced and adding new, noisy appliances that get in my way and scare the cats. It is, frankly, rude. Firefox doesn’t do that. Chromium doesn’t do that.
And it needn’t be this way. You can push out these features, but have them disabled by default. Put one of those gift icons up next to the Brave Shields icon, and show me what new features there are. If I want them, then the button can be right there to turn them on. If I don’t, I’m not bothered. That is a much more polite approach. Acknowledges me as a person. Gives me choices. Doesn’t presume.
I’ve put a couple of friends on to Brave, but I’m half expecting to hear complaints tomorrow from one who is relatively tech-savvy and is considerably less patient with rude software than I am, and from the other who is relatively not tech-savvy I’m expecting a worried call asking if their computer has been infected with something.
For myself, I have decided to take a three strikes policy. Sponsored images and Binance are the first two. If something new shows up in my browser one more time, trying to shove logos in my face or hook me on services I’ve never heard of, I’m out.