# Brave Browser Mistake Adds Its Referrer Code For Cryptocurrency Sites

**URL:** <https://onehack.st/t/brave-browser-mistake-adds-its-referrer-code-for-cryptocurrency-sites/90789>\
**Category:** News & Articles\
**Tags:** trading, browsers\
**Created:** [June 8, 2020, 12:49pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/brave-browser-mistake-adds-its-referrer-code-for-cryptocurrency-sites/90789 "2020-06-08T12:49:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BlueHacker](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/bluehacker/32/174721_2.png) [@BlueHacker](https://onehack.st/u/BlueHacker)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2020, 12:49pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/brave-browser-mistake-adds-its-referrer-code-for-cryptocurrency-sites/90789/1 "2020-06-08T12:49:32Z")

</div>

![image](https://onehack.st/uploads/default/original/3X/1/1/11fd50ced36a9a8d48a4c0424ccbe02355295084.jpeg)

The following report appeared on Yahoo! Finance:

_Privacy-focused browser Brave was found to [autocomplete several websites and keywords in its address bar with an affiliate code](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/brave-browser-autocompleting-websites-referral-191422067.html). Shortly after a user [published his findings](https://twitter.com/cryptonator1337/status/1269201480105578496), Brave CEO and co-founder Brendan Eich addressed the incident and called it “[a mistake we’re correcting](https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1269313200127795201).” Eich said that while Brave is a Binance affiliate [a cryptocurrency exchange] , the browser’s autocompleting feature should not have added any new affiliate codes._

 

_“The autocomplete default was inspired by search query clientid attribution that all browsers do, but unlike keyword queries, a typed-in URL should go to the domain named, without any additions,” Eich wrote in the thread. “Sorry for this mistake — we are clearly not perfect, but we correct course quickly,” he added._  
Android Police reports the mistake occured more than 10 weeks ago — and that referrer codes [were also included for other cryptocurrency-related sites](https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/06/07/brave-browser-caught-adding-its-own-referral-codes-to-some-cryptcurrency-trading-sites/): _The browser’s [GitHub repository](https://github.com/brave/brave-core/commit/e8fdde70a3ac2c25e6ccc567bc93c6d4059c2d72) reveals the functionality was first added on March 25th, and the [current list of sites](https://github.com/brave/brave-core/blob/master/components/omnibox/browser/suggested_sites_provider_data.cc#L14) includes Binance, Coinbase, Ledger, and Trezor. Brave Software receives a kickback for purchases/accounts made with those services — for example, Coinbase says that when you refer a new customer to the service, you can earn 50% of their fees for the first three months._

 

_The nature of these affiliate programs also allows the referrer — in this case, Brave Software — to view some amount of data about the customers who sign up with the code. Coinbase’s program provides “direct access to your campaign’s performance data,” while Trezor offers a “detailed overview of purchases.”_  
Brave CEO and co-founder Brendan Eich (who also created the JavaScript programming language) tweeted, "For what it’s worth there’s a setting to disable the autocomplete defaults that add affiliate codes, in brave://settings first page. Current plan is to flip default to off [as shown here](https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1269404443818119168). You can disable ahead of our release schedule if you want to.

“Good to hear from supporters who’ll enable it.”