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Brave Browsing: Another Step Toward Consumer Privacy

What is Brave?

Brave is a web browser that prioritizes two features above all else: privacy and speed. The mission behind Brave is to provide users with a safer, faster and better browsing experience while supporting content creators with a unique rewards system.

Similar to other browsers that have gained traction in the last few years such as Duck Duck Go, Brave does not track its users or share any data on browsing behaviors with third parties. All of a given user’s browsing information lives within the browser itself and never leaves.

Along with privacy, speed is another major benefit. Since there are no third-party tags present, Brave loads pages at least three times faster than other browsers with nothing to install, learn or manage. This is a major plus from a user experience perspective.

Why is This Important?

Amid continued privacy concerns with digital media and advertising, people are looking for safe browsing options and typically don’t want their data to be shared with third parties. There have been many issues in the social media space in particular, with Facebook’s multiple data breaches and, most recently, Twitter’s hacking issue.

Knowing that Chrome is getting rid of cookies, and that several major restrictions have been enacted by the GDPR and CCPA in recent years, Brave is the next logical step in the privacy protection journey.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Brave is its opt-in program that rewards users for viewing web-based ads. The rewards come in the form of Basic Attention Tokens (BATs), which users can share with the content creators they want to support. And on the other side of that, users can also remove sites that they do not want to support.

What are the Opportunities for Marketers?

Brave presents a new opportunity to expand audience reach. The browser is gaining momentum and growing fast in the United States. Its niche audience of younger, early adopters who care deeply about privacy will become more ubiquitous, and this browser can open brands up to an audience that might be entirely missed through other means.

Brave also offers a unique ad program based on notification ads. The browser matches the audience’s browsing behavior with the appropriate ad and then serves a notification ad to the user, which displays on the side of the screen and includes only a brand name, copy and a link to the landing page. Again, while behaviors, content and searches of users are tracked, this all happens within the browser. Instead of using a cookie-based tracking system, Brave is building a browser history that matches behaviors with these notification ads.

The users who see the ads have all opted in and understand that the ads are tailored to them based on their browsing behaviors. This is where the Basic Attention Token (BAT) program comes in. Users who opt in to receive ads will receive these tokens for viewing ads, and they can then use the tokens to support their favorite sites and content providers. The tokens can also be exchanged for gift cards or money. Ultimately, users are rewarded for their attention to the web.

What are the Next Steps?

We’ll need to monitor the growth and development of the browser, as it continues to gain users, but we believe that Brave offers a genuine opportunity to stay ahead of consumer tracking and privacy issues. It can also help to extend our reach to an opt-in audience that we aren’t reaching elsewhere (and an audience that is tech-savvy and values privacy). We look forward to seeing continued growth from Brave, as it certainly has potential in a future where privacy is top-of-mind.

Mike Pocci

Connections Planning Director

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