Sponsored sites are ads for websites that have partnered with Brave. They are shown along with the Top Sites of the browser's new tab page.

Brave may show them if you have previously interacted with the website so that the ad is relevant to you. The matching is done entirely on your machine and Brave does not learn anything about you.

These ads are a privacy-first way for advertisers to raise awareness of their brand and products, and for Brave to earn revenue. This revenue allows Brave to continue offering its products for free to everyone.
 

How does Brave decide to show me sponsored sites?

Brave distributes a per-country catalog of sponsored sites to your browser. If the sponsored site matches a website that would have already shown up in your Frequently Visited or Favorites, Brave may choose to bring forward the site to the first position of your Top Sites list. All matching happens locally; nothing leaves your browser.

You can opt out of seeing sponsored sites at any time.What data do you collect when I click on a sponsored site?

Brave does not collect any information about your interactions with sponsored sites. 
We add a query parameter ("tag") to the partner's URL for attribution. This tag does not identify you individually since it has the same value for all users and does not bypass Brave’s privacy protections in any way.

How can I opt out of sponsored sites?

To opt out of seeing these sponsored sites on a desktop device, you can disable sponsored sites from the Customize menu on the new tab page.

1. Open a new tab in Brave
2. Click the new tab page Settings button
   
3. In the Customize window, select Top sites, then toggle the Show sponsored sites option "off"