Brave, a privacy-focused web browser, has come under fire for allegedly selling copyrighted data to train artificial intelligence models.
This has led to debates about the ethical use of data and the need for transparency.
An article by Alex Ivanovs of Stack Diary brought to light the allegations against Brave.
Ivanovs expressed concern that Brave may be collecting and selling user data without permission to companies that develop AI systems.
While Brave offers strong privacy protections, its alleged sale of copyrighted material for AI training raises questions about data practices that may violate user trust and privacy expectations.
The emerging controversy highlights tensions around using personal data to advance AI capabilities rather than respecting data privacy and property rights. It emphasizes the need for clear communication and user consent regarding the sharing of their information.
The situation calls into question whether Brave really prioritizes user privacy and data control as it claims.
Unpacking the allegations
Ivanovs claimed that Brave allows access to copyrighted content through its Brave Search API, which allows third parties to use that data for AI training without the proper license.
He argued that Brave’s lack of respect for copyright and monetization of data access are ethically questionable practices.
Ivanov writes:
“Brave allows you to ingest copyrighted material through its Brave Search API, to which you are also assigned ‘rights’.”
Brave’s answer
The accusations led Josep M. Pujol, Brave’s head of research, to defend the company’s actions. Pujol said the rights issues were related to Brave’s search engine results, not the content itself.
Pujol explains:
“Brave Search has the right to monetize and place terms of service on its search engine output.”
Pujol also stated that all supplied data is always attributed to the content URL.
The Research
Ivanovs noted that Brave Search offers long “additional alternative snippets” similar to Google’s featured snippets. He questioned whether these long excerpts, which range from 150 to 260 words, meet copyright principles of fair use.
In addition, Ivanovs criticized Brave for not disclosing details about its web crawler, which indexes website content. He argued that this prevents website owners from blocking Brave from potentially selling their content.
Brave responded that their crawler respects the robots.txt standard websites use to control crawlers.
The Implications
Concluding his report, Ivanovs noted that the consequences of Brave’s practices extend beyond the search engine itself.
He expressed concern about the possibility that the system could be misused and the ambiguity surrounding the legality of Brave’s methods.
It also challenged Brave’s position that, as a search engine, it has the right to scrape and resell data verbatim.
Ivanov warns:
“I don’t see a world where this can’t be abused.”
For now, the debate continues.
This issue raises important questions about the ethical application of data, making money from other people’s content, and the level of openness shown by major technology companies.
The tech industry will be following these conversations closely as they evolve.
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