Open source Brave browser could change web advertising

To "save the internet" Brave is about to go one step further than blocking ads and safeguard user privacy and security, as we reported yesterday, it also plans to collect anonymised data so that it can segment audiences and insert personalised ads of its own, in ways that do not affect page performance or reveal personal data. While it is difficult to encourage people to use a new browser, Brave is hoping to lure publishers with the promise of a better web experience; the company could potentially change the way web advertising works if its platform gains enough kudos to encourage other browsers-makers to purchase its technology.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }}

Will someone please save the internet? How about the guy who invented the thing that is now mucking it up?

At the centre of the web's crisis is ad-blocking software. You might have it on your phone or browser, perhaps stifling the very sources of revenue that allow this publication to fund me to click-clack on my keyboard. Ad blockers are becoming extremely popular very quickly: Global web Index says that 40 per cent of the world's internet users have installed some sort of ad blocker, up from just 28 per cent in mid-2015. Adoption is expected to spike.

It's hard to blame users for climbing aboard this train. Ads have gone too far and broken the bargain consumers were once willing to make to get free content. Ads pop up and play in the middle of articles, crowd phone screens and suck up computing resources. Meanwhile, in the background, ads track us, collect data on us and steal our privacy.

Most people wouldn't go out of their way to install ad-blocking software unless they were fed up. Clearly, a huge number of us are fed up. This is a problem because a great deal of the internet is built around advertising. It pays for news, videos, social media, search, email, maps, music and a whole lot more. We have got used to free content and services, and have agreed to "pay" for them by enduring ads and exposing our identities. If we all load ad blockers, many of the creators of content and services will see their oxygen cut off and will perish.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 / 25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at California’s Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

If internet ads are the last lifeline for journalism, the underpinnings of an informed democracy will soon wear away. Lately, tactics in the ad-block wars have escalated. Recently, the German Bild newspaper banned anyone running an ad blocker from accessing its site. Some sites are deploying anti-ad-blocker software, which will only entice people to install anti-anti-ad-blocker software. The Interactive Advertising Bureau withdrew invitations to executives from Adblock Plus to its forthcoming leadership summit. It's getting ugly.

Enter Brendan Eich. He is pretty famous in internet circles. Way back in 1995, while working at Netscape, Eich created JavaScript in about 10 days of frenetic work. JavaScript today makes possible most of the annoying, privacy-sucking ads that we want ad blockers to block. Two decades ago, there was no way to foresee how JavaScript might play out, but Eich's youthful 10-day programing burst is now crippling the web.

Eich is also famous for co-founding Mozilla, which brought us the Firefox browser and helped break Microsoft's early grip on the web. (Eich resigned as Mozilla's CEO in 2014 after he was hounded for donating $1,000 to back California's anti-gay-marriage proposition.) But the important point here is that on two separate occasions, Eich made something that remade the web, and now he's trying to do it again.

Recently, Eich let loose a new invention called Brave. It's a whole browser built to block ads. Use Brave and no ads will get through, and no bits of software from sites will be able to track anything you do or know anything about you. Yet, Eich says, "we're doing something bigger. We're building a solution designed to avert war and give users the fair deal they deserve."

How? Brave collects anonymised user data, untraceable to you but interesting enough so that you can be segmented into a likely audience for certain kinds of ads. Then Brave inserts its ads in a way that won't affect the page's performance or give up your personal data, and Brave will return to publishers 55 per cent of the revenue – perhaps up to 70 per cent.

Brave is a for-profit company co-founded by Eich and former Khan Academy executive Brian Bondy, and it raised $2.5m (£1.75m) in funding in November, including a small bit from John Taysom, a venture capitalist who, working for Reuters ages ago, cut a deal with Yahoo that pioneered news on the web. But like Firefox, the Brave browser is open source, so anyone who knows programming could inspect the code to make sure Brave is doing what it promised.

Brendan Eich: 'We’re building a solution that's designed to avert war' (Mozilla)

The plan can sound a little Sisyphean, yet it makes sense. It's a big hurdle to get people to use a new browser, but the promise of a browser that cleans up the web experience will be a lure. And if Brave starts to gain users, publishers might look at a future of fencing with ad blockers and conclude Brave seems like a better option. "We hope our users will form a valuable enough audience that our browser-side anonymous targeting will get ads from the buy side organically," Eich says.

At least Brave puts a desperately needed new idea into the mix, and it has people talking. Google is throwing out another idea with its Contributor project – a service that blocks ads and gives users the option to donate money to help fund the publishers whose ads they are blocking. Though, generally speaking, solutions that rely on charity are a little sketchy. Anyway, people like Taysom at least hope that Brave and other concepts like it "give publishers the encouragement they need to rally and fight back," as he puts it.

The real win would be if Brave can build up enough cachet to sell its technology to other browser-makers, which would create a critical mass of users and stir real change in the way web advertising works. At some point, we might have a speedier, smoother internet experience – and one that doesn't compromise our privacy.

After all, we really like having advertisers pay for all the stuff we get on the web, just as we like advertisers to pay for us to watch the Super Bowl. We just need a bargain that doesn't kill the goose, cook the egg and leave democracy hanging by its last knuckle.

© Newsweek