Is the ad-blocking Brave browser too good to be true?
A new web browser says it will block ads to protect your privacy.
But is it too good to be true?
I'm Bridget Carey.
This is your CNET Update.
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No one likes the feeling of being tracked by advertisements, especially when some stupid thing you looked at on Amazon follows you around the web for a week.
And ads, are also coming with other issues, all that tracking can make pages load slower, and now we have to worry about ads that are loaded with malware that could infect your computer even if you don´t Click on it, all of this just contributes to the growing popularity of ad blocking software.
But now there's a new web browser that wants to get in on this trend and do the ad blocking for you by default, but there's a twist.
The browser is called Brave, and it's a project of Brendan Eich.
He created the JavaScript programming language and he co-founded Mozilla.
Brave blocks all ads by default, so ad companies will not be tracking you and pages do load faster.
But it wants to make money by inserting it's own ads in place of the blocked ones.
So in theory, these ads are supposed to be better because instead of tracking cookies to follow you, the ads show based on your browsing history, and that's how it would make money.
It's still in beta now and the company would need millions of users to even make that model make.
And the creators say that maybe you and I could get a cut of the ad revenue.
And we can send that money as micro-payments Payments to support our favorite websites.
Since they would not be making money off ads.
Brave isn't the only browser with guts to do such a thing.
Firefox has an option called private browsing with tracking protection.
That also stops websites from spying on you by blocking ads.
The only ads that do show up are the ones that do not track visitors.
Also on the topic of security, if you have a iPhone, it's a good idea to download the new operating system update of iOS 9.2.1, it's also for iPads.
The update itself is minor, but it patches a nasty A flaw that lets hackers spy on your phone watching what you type or even make purchases without your knowledge.
It's a little hard to make the hack happen.
You would have to first connect it to a fake wifi network that a hacker created.
But nonetheless, it's good to be safe and just download the patch in case there's some evil hacking mastermind looking to trick people at your local coffee shop.
That's it for this Tech News Update, but you can catch up on more at cnet.com, and be sure to follow me on Twitter.
From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
[MUSIC]
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