Brave Browser Crosses 10mln. Downloads, Launches Ad Trial Program

Brave, after attaining 4 million active users, has initiated a new piloting program for advertising, while securing an important partnership. The Brave browser, which is privacy focused, keeps the user data secure and away from access by search engines and other programs.

Other facilities offered by the browser are ad blocking, script deactivation, trail blocker and cookie obstructer.

Brave wants to change the manner in which online advertising industry delivers advertisements. Only ads filtered based on users approval are shown.

10 Million Plus Downloads in Google Play Store

The browser achieved major milestone recently when it recorded 10 million downloads in the Google Play Store. Presently, there are over 4 million active users. This is a noteworthy accomplishment, as expanding the user base paves way for Brave team to bring new advertisers within their platform.

The list of accomplishments continues after Brave received endorsement from Apple to employ Bat in iOS apps and offered the ability to tip users on Reddit and Twitter through its browser. The swiftly expanding web browser has presently initiated an authorized advertising trial program to collect additional data for research and development.

Public Advertising Program Trial

The public advertising program trial intends to collect data pertaining to browsing activity of user. Brave has announced a public advertising program trial that will collect user’s data on browsing activity. The test run is exclusively for Mac users who download a unique ‘test’ build of the Brave browser from the official briefing page.

28-Day Experiment

The advertising trial, structured to test the program in real-world conditions in the Brave browser, will run for 28 days. The Brave team has asserted that its normal browser will never resort to the collection of user data. Only the browsers that are employed in trial will collect browsing and other user data for further study.

Specifically, the browser used in the trial will track information such as the list of websites visited, last time it was used, information related to wifi, IP address of user, advertisements related to user, clicked and discarded ads.

The Brave team has announced that the collected data will be eliminated after 1 year. Only the researchers involved in the project will have access to the data.

Crucial Test for the Platform

The advertising trial is a major step in bringing the actual advertising program to real-world use. The test run program is designed to remunerate users that view adverts. Users that sign up to view advertisements could receive up to a 70% share of the advertising revenues from the advertisement.

It requires a lot of testing to bring about a big change in the online advertising industry. The public advertising trial will only assist in bringing Brave’s vision to reality.
The piloting of the project began on September 13, 2018. Interested users can download the program and join the trial.

Qwant Partnership

The Brave team has also entered into a partnership with privacy-focused search engine named Qwant. Brave, which was previously using Google as the default search engine migrated to Qwant for France and German users.

Qwant does not collect or share private data of user. The search engine uses its own unique web-indexing technology that safeguards privacy by preventing the installation of cookies or trackers.

Privacy by Default

By using Qwant, Brave ensures users remain protected online by default. This enables creating a more sustainable internet, which is not big data or commercial advertising oriented.

Regarding migration to Qwant, Brendan Eich, CEO and creator of Brave, said:

“By combining Brave and Qwant, users can enjoy the web in a way that does not violate their privacy.”

The users will also experience faster loading times relative to other well-known browsers. This saves money as unwanted ads are prevented from getting loaded, giving a better browsing experience. Furthermore, users will have the ability to reward their favorite content producers using the integrated Basic Attention Token (BAT) wallet.