Random websites opening without permission


Description
I have noticed over the past month or so that when I’m searching on google, I’ll randomly have a new tab pop open for some unasked for site while not clicking anything out of the ordinary. I Just had it happen again when searching for VR related stuff and was selecting one of the suggested auto-fill options and it opened up a site about some VR game that’s obviously one of those shady border image games on the sides of gaming sites.

I didn’t miss-click. I don’t have malware. I don’t have any extensions that this could be. I’m on the latest version. I know it’s not my imagination, and am wondering if it’s a bugged out ad banner system that’s overlaying over my page but isn’t loaded in properly. Dunno, but it’s super frustrating and I’m about to drop Brave altogether, as I don’t want to be sent to shady sites that could have viruses at the whim of RNG. If this is a new feature, it is not appreciated.

Reproduce

  1. Load up Google
  2. Search for whatever. (Optional: Choose an auto-fill option occasionally)
  3. Observe as the User will occasionally be redirected to a random site that may or may not be related to what they were searching for.

Expected result:
The User should not be redirected to sites without their consent/interest.

Brave Version( check About Brave):
Version 1.25.72 Chromium: 91.0.4472.101 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Additional Information:
The site in-question is https://www.virtropolisvr.com/
This popped up while searching for unturned vr
Edit: While typing this out and gathering information about the issue,(about 10 minutes in total) I went back and clicked on one of the links towards the top of the page(if relevent) and the same site popped back up. After closing and clicking the link again soon after, it took me to the appropriate Youtube link that I clicked. Not okay guys!

@mrtator,
Thank you for reaching out to us.
This is definitely not a new feature. I notice that you said

I would still recommend testing this with your extensions disabled to see if you get the same behavior. Moreover, I would actually recommend testing this in a new, fresh profile to see if you can reproduce the issue. Note that when testing, be sure to close your original profile window such that only one Brave window (using the newly created profile) is open.

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