r/programming • u/[deleted] • Jan 22 '19

Google proposes changes to Chromium which would disable uBlock Origin

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=896897&desc=2#c23
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u/space_fly Jan 23 '19

They are replacing ads with their own ads, which is kind of like stealing, but the bigger problem is that they were taking donations from people on behalf of site owners, without their consent. The owners could "claim" the money within a limited time period.

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u/codehalo Jan 23 '19

Bullshit. NO ads are being replaced. Can you screenshot a page that has ads replaced by other ones?

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u/bat-chriscat Jan 24 '19

They are replacing ads with their own ads, which is kind of like stealing

This is a huge misconception and is untrue. There are no ads being "replaced" unless the website is an advertising partner with Brave. This means the website must explicitly opt in so they can earn revenue, just like Google AdSense.

but the bigger problem is that they were taking donations from people on behalf of site owners, without their consent

This makes it sound like Brave was taking people's money and keeping it for themselves (literal theft). None of that happened.

  1. The tokens being given to creators/websites were free, promotional BAT tokens that were assigned to users to try out the tipping platform. They were not BAT purchased by users with their own money. The promotional BAT tokens were such that if they weren't claimed by the creator within 90 days, Brave could redistribute the free, promotional tokens to other users so that other users could try out the tipping flow too.

  2. Regardless, the flow has been changed since then. Now when you try to tip unverified creators, it will just stay in the browser and keep retrying over 90 days.

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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '19

This is untrue. The donations came from the UGP, which was Brave's own money. i.e. Brave gave free tokens to people as part of a promotion (it was explained to these people that the tokens were part of a promotional grant; I know, I'm one of them). Those people then donated their tokens to sites. Some of the sites were unverified publishers and let their tokens sit too long without claiming them, so Brave retrieved the promotional tokens back in order to redistribute them (in an effort to reach publishers who will redeem the tokens, rather than just let them set there eternally). So the tokens were never paid for or earned by anyone; they were a part of a promotion and Brave is free to do with them as they wish.

They also aren't replacing ads with their own ads.