Privacy-focused browser Brave has also been listening to consumers, with their permission of course.  They found that 70% of survey respondents find it creepy when they see online ads related to previous Web searches, and 81% would reward brands that gave them more control over how many ads they see.  Brave also ran a test that found ads served in an opt-in environment had a positive impact, but I didn’t see results compared with ads in a conventional environment.  

The U.S. Department of Justice has formally requested the sale of the Chrome browser among other measures following last August’s guilty verdict in its search advertising antitrust suit (not to be confused with last week’s guilty verdict in the adtech antitrust lawsuit). Google is asking for a much narrower focus on deals to be the default search engine for Apple, Mozilla and others. There will be a three-week hearing on the government’s proposals.