Cocoon browser is run by MyData Rewards (MDR). They allow users in the USA to give up their browsing habits and in return get paid for sharing your data anonymously with Cocoon MDR. If you want Privacy, this is not the browser for you. You might want to look at Brave Browser1 or Mozilla Firefox2.
After one week of running the browser, they show I viewed 767 pages with an estimated earning of $3.31 USD.
The first few days showed no page views, but after about 48-72 hours, the page views started to show up.
Directions
| Go to https://trycocoon.com/?ref=fc91f314
Click on |
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Enter your Email Address
Enter a strong password for Check on Finally, click |
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On the next page, select either:
iOS Download and Android Download is Coming Soon as of 2 Feb 2020 |
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| Click on Download for Windows
Click on the arrow and select Open |
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| Click yes when you get the UAC prompt |  |
| Click I Agree on the License Agreement (Cocoon 0.1.3) |  |
| Click Next on Welcome to Cocoon Setup screen |  |
| Choose Install Location
If the default Destination Folder is fine, click on |
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| Let the installer run |  |
Click Finish to Complete the Cocoon Setup |
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| Click on the Windows keyboard button for Windows 10 and you will see Cocoon on your Start Menu |  |
“Monetize”
Monetize means to earn revenue from your user data. Web site you visit and your browsing is packaged, analyzed, and sold to third parties for money. The profits from this sale is shared with you, the user creating this information.
About Virtual World Computing
Virtual World Computing (VWC) states they want users to “profit from the data they generate online”.
Virtual World Computing (VWC) has a program called MyData Rewards (MDR) via the Cocoon browser. You sign up and grant permission for your browsing habits to be collected and analyzed anonymously. Any personally identifiable information (pii) such as name or e-mail is removed and sold to third parties such as Complementics. If your user data is purchased, you receive a portion of the revenue. When users sign up for MyData Rewards™, they grant the browser permission to collect data around their online browsing habits. That data is then anonymized to remove any personally identifiable information, such as names or email addresses, and sold to third parties interested in better understanding consumers’ online activities. Any time a user’s data is monetized, that user receives a portion of the revenue via cash payments through PayPal. The average individual user of MyData Rewards™ can collect 80 percent of the profits generated by their browsing activity, simply by using a browser and opting in to the same type of data collection that other browsers enable by default. Initial testing indicates that an individual user could earn hundreds of dollars per year, and a family of three could easily double or triple that amount.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/virtual-world-computing-llc
Better Business Bureau: https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/santa-barbara/profile/computer-hardware/virtual-world-computing-llc-1236-532300
Cocoon: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/virtual-world-computing#section-overview3
About Complementics
Complementics works with apps to earn revenue from anonymous user data. They are excited to work directly with Virtual World Computing because of the “richness” of the data generated by browsing activity”.
https://www.complementics.com/data-monetization/
“We help publishers of websites, apps, and extensions generate incremental revenue by monetizing anonymous behavioral data.”
Tour of the Cocoon Browser (Feb 2020)
Only continue if you’re curious about the Cocoon web browser and dashboard before you decide to sign up.
| After I launched Cocoon, I see that it just the Chrome browser with some extra stuff in it. |  |
The infinity symbol gives you access to the:
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| The grey dollar sign icon is to Toggle Cocoon Rewards on & off. Click on it to login and activate Rewards mode. |  |
On the new tab that is created, you will need to login using the:
Click Log In |
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| You will be given an opportunity to save the password you just entered. Your choice whether you want to save it or not. I saved the Password.
Your choice whether you want to allow location track. You will notice now the toolbar’s grey dollar sign (pause) is not a green dollar sign (on)
If you pause the dollar sign, it will turn grey (pause)
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| Click on Take Our Tour to learn more about MyData Rewards if you want. It the same information I just told you about the Dashboard and Rewards on/off.
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| Once you Exit the Tour, you will be taken to the Cocoon MyData Rewards tab |  |
| This is what the Dashboard looks like |  |
| Cash Out screen |  |
| Payments screen |  |
| Referrals screen
While we are here, if you found this guide helpful, please join Cocoon with my referral link: https://trycocoon.com/?ref=fc91f314
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| Reset Password screen |  |
| Support screen |  |
| Privacy screen |  |
| Terms of Service |  |
- Brave blocks ads, trackers, and has Tor built in if you want to use it. [↩]
- Firefox is also reimaging the company as a privacy oriented business with side services to sell like web proxy – free gives you 12 one hour sessions a month [↩]
- Looks like Cocoon was the original startup from 2008. Perhaps they pivoted from anti-virus, online security, and image search engine to data aggregation. 2017 they had a VPN add-on to Cocoon. With Brave browser and Mozilla Firefox marketing themselves as the privacy browser, Cocoon seems to be a response towards marketers and perhaps users as well. [↩]