Brave CEO Addresses Senate, Urges Adoption Of GDPR Model For United States

Brendan Eich, CEO of the Basic Attention Token-powered browser, Brave, wrote and sent a letter to the United States Senate on September 28th urging representatives to adopt a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) model for privacy, not unlike the European Union’s guidelines.

Adapting To Modern Times

The EU adopted its GDPR model in 2016, which provides consumers with more control over how their data is handled. With this policy, new startups have more of a chance against big companies, as the established ones can’t take data collected for one purpose and unfairly use it for other parts of their business. The rules essentially even the playing field between the small guys and the big ones.

Eich’s letter specifically addresses the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, stating that he views the GDPR “as a great leveller.” The CEO continues, “the GDPR establishes the conditions that can allow young, innovative companies like Brave to flourish.”

Of course, Brave is built around an “anti-ad” mantra, with the goal of revolutionizing online revenue. Eich’s letter furthers this mission, stating that invasive tactics regarding “behavioral tracking” is entirely unnecessary and even “questionable”:

“The enormous growth of ad-blocking by people across the globe (to 615 million active devices by late 2017) proves the terrible cost of inadequately regulating the tracking-based advertising system. Trust will only return as the GDPR-like laws begin to curtail the online advertising industry’s worst practices.”

According to the letter, GDPR principles are similar to the current OECD Guidelines established by the United States in 1980. These rules already detail a “GDPR-like definition of personal data”, so it should be no issue to adopt the newer model, Eich insinuates.

The Brave brand has had quite a positive year. In only the last few months, the platform has added cryptocurrency tipping for Reddit and Twitter, been named a viable alternative to Google Chrome, and even reached 10 million downloads on the Google Play store.

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