[HN Gopher] Tell HN: Brave Browser is still messing with affilia...
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       Tell HN: Brave Browser is still messing with affiliate links
        
       Previously they had been autofilling links and replacing affiliate
       links with their code:
       https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/8/21283769/brave-browser-affiliate-
       links-crypto-privacy-ceo-apology  They stopped doing that but I
       found they appear to remove affiliate links altogether unless it
       comes from them.  Just to test I put NordVPN's affiliate link
       structure and viola it gets removed:  <a
       href="https://go.nordvpn.net/aff_c">Test Affiliate Link</a>
        
       Author : jimhi
       Score  : 39 points
       Date   : 2022-07-15 17:58 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
       | ev1 wrote:
       | Do you have any adblocking? /aff_c are almost universally blocked
       | because they're 99% spam, on any domain
        
       | gravitate wrote:
       | I read a while back that Bitly the popular URL shortener replaced
       | Amazon links with their own affiliate tag. After hearing this I
       | ran my own URL shortener service. Seems Brave is replacing the
       | affiliate code URL too. You could get around this by setting up
       | your own URL shortener service.
        
       | leros wrote:
       | I'm surprised that's noy in violation of the affiliate and
       | getting them kicked off the program.
        
       | kbelder wrote:
       | I'm always a little uncomfortable seeing accusations like that
       | when there's just a sample size of one. It's worth raising the
       | question, so we can check, but people always remember the
       | accusation and not the exoneration.
       | 
       | This should probably be communicated as "I'm seeing this
       | behavior... can anybody else replicate it?"
       | 
       | An "Ask HN", not a "Tell HN".
        
       | t6jvcereio wrote:
       | Stick to Firefox guys.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | behnamoh wrote:
         | I actually switched from FF to Brave. Much happier with it now.
         | The only thing I miss from FF is PiP for videos, but that can
         | be solved by an extension on Brave.
        
         | prepend wrote:
         | I switched from FireFox to Brave. The UX is just so much
         | better. Launch is faster. Updates are faster (and smaller). And
         | resource load is less.
         | 
         | I also like being less entailed with Google and view Brave's
         | chromium base a lesser evil than FireFox's funding dependency.
         | 
         | For what it's worth, I don't care at all about this affiliate
         | hijacking and think it's actually a benefit that more things
         | should do as long as they don't break the experience (eg, screw
         | up the rewrites).
        
           | jraph wrote:
           | > I also like being less entailed with Google and view
           | Brave's chromium base a lesser evil than FireFox's funding
           | dependency.
           | 
           | Right. Instead of relying on funding coming from Google to
           | develop the browser, Brave just uses Google's one directly,
           | which in my opinion is quite equivalent to getting 100%
           | funded by Google for developing the browser.
           | 
           | I hope Firefox will be able to get its founding from other
           | entities. Brave, however, is never getting rid of Google and
           | its technical decisions without a rewrite from scratch and is
           | just participating in Google's dominance on the Web.
           | 
           | You may like Brave for its technical qualities, but we can't
           | pretend it is better than Firefox wrt dependency on Google.
           | 
           | Developing the browser skin is not the hard part, and it is
           | also not the place where the Web desperately needs help. I
           | wish there was a browser that could keep up with the current
           | web and that is not mostly funded by a GAFAM (or a GA, at
           | this point), and Brave isn't one.
        
           | cuteboy19 wrote:
           | > view Brave's chromium base a lesser evil than FireFox's
           | funding dependency.
           | 
           | This is very short-sighted. All chromium forks are an
           | extension of Google Chrome.
        
             | ZGDUwpqEWpUZ wrote:
             | Chromium is the base. Google Chrome is one browser built on
             | top of it, Brave is another.
        
       | mp3geek wrote:
       | I had no issues here. In Easylist we will remove many of the nord
       | ad (image) spam. Which uBO and Brave uses.
       | 
       | /Disclaimer Easylist Maintainer and Brave Webcompat
        
         | hasperdi wrote:
         | My thank you for maintaining Easylist
        
       | propogandist wrote:
       | did you check if it's saved in the cookie? I see on my machine
       | visiting Nord via one of those terrible "VPN comparison"
       | websites; affiliate links usually just drop a cookie.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | FrenchDevRemote wrote:
       | "They stopped doing that but I found they appear to remove
       | affiliate links altogether unless it comes from them."
       | 
       | isn't that the whole purpose of adblocking? :)
        
         | hertzrat wrote:
         | Removing affiliate codes is arguably a privacy feature. People
         | don't especially like having so many sites know where they just
         | came from. I know some people who rely on those affiliate codes
         | for some of their income though
         | 
         | Did they really replace the codes with their own for a while??
        
       | gabrielsroka wrote:
       | I'm running Brave for Android. I tested your link, and it works
       | fine for me.
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-15 23:02 UTC)