Perplexity CEO Says Its Browser Will Track Everything Users Do Online To Sell Ads (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0177131937
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/04/25/044215/perplexity-ceo-says-its-browser-will-track-everything-users-do-online-to-sell-ads
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/24/perplexity-ceo-says-its-browser-will-track-everything-users-do-online-to-sell-hyper-personalized-ads/
> Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said this week on the [1]TBPN podcast that one reason Perplexity is building its own browser is to [2]collect data on everything users do outside of its own app . This so it can sell premium ads. "That's kind of one of the other reasons we wanted to build a browser, is we want to get data even outside the app to better understand you," Srinivas said. "Because some of the prompts that people do in these AIs is purely work-related. It's not like that's personal."
>
> And work-related queries won't help the AI company build an accurate-enough dossier. "On the other hand, what are the things you're buying; which hotels are you going [to]; which restaurants are you going to; what are you spending time browsing, tells us so much more about you," he explained. Srinivas believes that Perplexity's browser users will be fine with such tracking because the ads should be more relevant to them. "We plan to use all the context to build a better user profile and, maybe you know, through our discover feed we could show some ads there," he said. The browser, named Comet, suffered setbacks but is on track to be launched in May, Srinivas said.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZkDPtE4WmA&themeRefresh=1
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/24/perplexity-ceo-says-its-browser-will-track-everything-users-do-online-to-sell-hyper-personalized-ads/
Creepy (Score:2)
This company and its CEO should die in a fire.
Re: Creepy (Score:1)
What did fire do to you? Fire is a foundational human resource.
Maybe die in a mudslide? Volcano?
Re: (Score:2)
Fire exists beyond the human experience, but honestly, feeding the Perplexity to a fire would not only make the world a better place for humans, but would also entertain the fire, so it's good all the way around.
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Don't really matter if they end up dead quickly, but so much better if it is a horrific and painful death.
Re: (Score:2)
I wish such evil on no one.
Instead, may his business model drive him into bankruptcy, his house repossessed, and his children become landfill diggers after his wife divorces him, and takes the dog.
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And then ICE ships them to El Salvador.
Re: (Score:2)
If this makes you that angry, I recommend you avoid reading anything about Trump.
There is no limit ... (Score:5, Funny)
... to how far the idea of me ever installing this can fuck off.
Someone might, at this very moment, be building interstellar probes that could be launched into the aether to wander the stars for countless millennia to come, and which will drift past far distant planets that are still not far enough away for Perplexity and their data-grabbing appliances to fuck off to.
At least he's honest? (Score:2)
Should be interesting to see whether people prefer to feign ignorance of being tracked like this, or they prefer the transparency.
I'm going to take a guess, based on the state of the world today, that people prefer to pretend that tracking like this doesn't exist so they can fake rage against it.
Re:At least he's honest? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm trying to figure out why anyone would install this. Browsers are already free. Short of perplexity paying people to use it, I don't see it getting installed. I'm perplexed.
Re: (Score:3)
> I'm trying to figure out why anyone would install this. Browsers are already free. Short of perplexity paying people to use it, I don't see it getting installed. I'm perplexed.
All those great, personalized ads you've been asking for?
Re: (Score:2)
> All those great, personalized ads you've been asking for?
I have met people who actually like personalised ads -- it shows them just what they might want to buy.
No, I cannot understand that mindset either!
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect he doesn't know about - or thinks most people don't know about - ad blockers, and so offering a browser that has more relevant ads will attract people who hate the irrelevant ads but figure they're unavoidable.
Obviously, for those of us who are smart about adblocking, who almost never see ads we don't agree to see, it's stupid.
But shockingly, there are probably plenty of people who will happily sign up for that "improved" experience.
Re: (Score:2)
Or perhaps their ai is smart enough to realize that some people never follow advertising on principle, and will even actively boycott products/brands that subject them to the most intrusive of ads.
Re:At least he's honest? (Score:5, Informative)
This is how:
Starting today, Perplexity will come pre-installed on all new Motorola phones.
[1]https://x.com/perplexity_ai/st... [x.com]
[1] https://x.com/perplexity_ai/status/1915438723870941319
Re: (Score:2)
Farging bastiches! So glad I was able to buy my newest Moto phone last year. I bet this will be one of those apps that you can't remove without rooting the phone.
Re: (Score:2)
Pity, I have an old Moto-Z I still like. I'd pondered getting one of the foldables moto had. Not anymore. Thanks for the heads up.
So at least they're admitting it. (Score:2)
They're admitting to becoming Privacy Rapists.
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Perplexity Inc.
Our motto: Who the fuck thought this was a good idea?
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Yes, I'm a bit perplex about this plan.
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Ditto. all so they can sell more expensive ads? Tell you what.... you give me 50% of the money you make on me and I'll install and use your browser.... maybe.
Curious (Score:5, Insightful)
Is he honestly so high on his own supply that he buys the "people would love ads if only they were more 'relevant'; because obviously there's not actually any tension between things you are interested in seeing and things that someone will pay to have rammed into your eye" concept; or is this just one of those situations where you look at your burn rate, remaining VC cash, and complete lack of plans for profitability and make a statement that isn't secret but is intended for the investors rather than the targets?
Re: (Score:3)
If you're interested in a class of product, then you will be actively searching for it, and you're far more likely to be interested in unbiased reviews rather than paid advertisements.
What a lot of these tracking companies do is use your past search history - eg i was searching for lawn mowers last week, so show me advertisements for lawn mowers today. This is totally useless because i was searching for lawnmowers last week because i wanted to buy one, i did buy one, and now i have one so i don't need anoth
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, that is the simple way -- and it works to sell companies on your services along with the promise you'll get better over time and their inability or lack of tracking to realize you are not delivering on your promise. Essentially, using your marketing skills which is what you are selling but using those skills on the client more than on the client's customers.
Profiling people into groups and offering things they didn't already buy takes more effort as well as DATA and statistics; plus it's going to hav
Re: (Score:2)
That's how they sell it to the public. And on the whole, personalised ads do make the ads you see (if any) slightly more relevant. But the main reason for their existence is to allow advertisers to more precisely target the demographic groups they are after. It makes advertising cheaper, much cheaper. Instead of advertising to pretty much everyone and pay for 1M impressions to reach 1k of your target demographic, you only pay for 1k impressions (or a bit more, it's not perfect)
The "outside" (Score:3)
The "outside" is none of your business. What happens on my device is my business and my business only. You have no right to all my data outside of your browser. The browser which no one is going to use in the first place. :-)
the end result of celebrating sociopathy (Score:5, Insightful)
This is what you get when you celebrate sociopathy. What used to be the shameful underbelly of greed and capitalism is now a bragging point worthy of a press release. Where you used to have to hide this level of corrupt behavior, now you cannot even compete for capital without having it on your resume.
If they get Chrome (Score:2)
If they get [1]Chrome [cybernews.com] - anyone using it will want to find a different browser.
[1] https://cybernews.com/news/perplexity-openai-google-chrome-battle/
Re: (Score:2)
Actually it is kind of a good idea to use chrome for using google services like youtube and a differemt browser for rest of the web, that way google tracking of you on third party sites is more spotty..
That sounds like stalking... (Score:4, Interesting)
We essentially have laws on the books for this already, some class action lawyers just need to step up.
Personalized ads (Score:1)
I dislike ads. I hate personalized ads. An ad that is irrelevant to me, like a luxury car brand I wouldn't buy, isn't going to influence my behavior. An ad that might actually influence my behavior at some point could lead me to do something against my best interests. I compensate by saying internally, "x is garbage" every time I see or hear an ad for x, but that influences me in the other way: where I see x I'm slightly less inclined to buy it when buying it might be in my best interests. All told, persona
what's the benefit to me? (Score:2)
Exactly what do I get for using your spyware? Nothing? I think your business model has a tad bit of a hole in it. You may find that people are already attached to the browsers they are accustomed to using and your customer acquisition rate may be less than anticipated. What an absolutely worthless idea and pointless company. Well, at least you get to don the CEO title for a while and suckle on the VC teat.
Re: (Score:2)
> Exactly what do I get for using your spyware?
You must have missed the memo. Tech companies are no longer interested in providing users with what they need or want. They are *ONLY* interested in what they can get out of users. Because that's what the already entrenched companies are doing. The problem is, now entries into the field aren't smart enough to realize that you have to attract a userbase before you exploit it. While saying, "We're gonna exploit the SHIT out of our users," may generate a brief flow of VC cash, it won't actually get you a userb
Who would want this? (Score:2)
What's the upside for me? Why would I ever want this? Getting better ads is not necessarily better. If I'm really looking to buy something, maybe, but then I'll just do my research instead. This sounds like a net loss for users. Even if we assume all those data is collected in an ethical manner, why would I want this?
Re: (Score:2)
Because somebody you trust told you it's great and as long as it doesn't suck too much you'll just do whatever you are influenced into doing because your intelligence takes too much time and energy to turn on.
They only need to buy enough of the right influencers and find effective marketing to sustain the business. Or simply fool enough investors long term... which is like 10 years before the CEO moves on to the next scam. It's not like you need a sound business anymore... more of a variation on a freemium
I'm a bit perplexed... (Score:2)
Did they unfreeze a DotCom era CEO from a cryogenic vat and asked him to do an inspirational speech in front of investors or something? Because well, this idea is not exactly new.
(mental image: Dr Evil asking the world leaders for a one million dollar ransom)
I'm perplexed (Score:2)
Fitting name because I'm perplexed why anyone would knowingly install this. (I bet they won't, it's going to be bundled on cheap PCs for sure!)
that is, I only want clueless customers (Score:2)
CEO will race his clientele to the Dystopia. SMH
Ad sellers only want "interests" (Score:2)
Interests, like "I want a trailer hitch for my Subaru".
All that other stuff? Wanted for someone else.
It's just piggybacking the blame onto advertisers, because people don't like them anyway
Yeah Uhm (Score:2)
In my Lundberg voice:
"I'm gonna have to disagree with you there."
Complete misunderstanding (Score:2)
"users will be fine with such tracking because the ads should be more relevant to them"
I don't want advertisements that are relevant to me.
I don't want to see any ads - and mostly don't, because I use an ad blocker. If ads get through, I'd prefer them to be irrelevant to me, so that I won't inadvertently pay any attention to them.
So... (Score:2)
It's exactly like every other stock browser at this point?
Take pride in your work (Score:2)
[slaps top of machine] "This baby can shred 8 puppies per minute, and next year's model will be able to do 15! We could have gotten it up to 30 but we felt shredding them too quickly didn't make them squeak and yelp enough."
I look forward... (Score:2)
I look forward to the day when asshats like this are all out of business and their exorbitant hardware budgets are being liquidated for cents
Thank you (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank you for your honesty so I can avoid all use of your product. I don't want ads, I want to pay for what I use and be ad free.
Re: (Score:2)
I imagine we can thank google, then, too... their TOS is pretty clear that they are fucking you without reservation
I wonder if this will be the year of open source AI ?
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I haven't used a google product in years.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, me neither, but you gotta give them credit for honesty
the surprise to me is that basically no one read it, cares about it, or has changed their behavior..
just you and me, and a few tinfoilers
Hasn't hurt business one bit. sad.
Re: (Score:2)
> Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas
- Perhaps he isn't promoting the "needful" as clearly as he should and that's why people aren't reacting well to this "good news"...?
[BAEG]
Re: (Score:2)
I won't even commit to that. I will forever treat ads like they are in a newspaper. They will guess whether I see them and I will do everything in my power to avoid them. I take every possible step to ensure that any data that travels from the internet to me is explicitly by my request only with everything else being blocked. Same for outbound data. Everything is pre-whitelisted or it doesnt work and that is true for me not just in one place like the browser itself, but it is layered across multiple systems