We are a Binance affiliate, we refer users via the opt-in trading widget on the new tab page, but autocomplete should not add any code.'Įich’s tweet thread goes on to explain that the mistake reflects the need for the company to run a profitable business. 'We made a mistake, we're correcting: Brave default autocompletes verbatim '' in address bar to add an affiliate code. Brave founder Brendan Eich has since acknowledged the mistake and told users that the referral language should stop appearing soon. I don’t want my browser touching the URL I type in the address bar.”įirst noticed by Yannick Eckl on June 6 and first reported by Decrypt, the browser was sending signals to Binance that a user had been referred by Brave when they had not been. Monero developer Riccardo Spagni, also known as Fluffypony, captured some of this unease when he tweeted, “Bro. Automatically adding the tag to the URL creates the appearance that Brave is adding tracking to visits to the exchange’s website that were direct, rather than mediated through some kind of referral (such as Brave’s in-browser ads). This replicates on an instance of Brave used here at CoinDesk.

The browser maker Brave, which launched around protecting online privacy, was called out this weekend when users noticed that typing in the name of the leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, resulted in an auto-complete that ended in a referral link. No one is easier to criticize than a Boy Scout.

Brave browser controversy