Perplexity CEO Says Its Browser Will Track Everything Users Do Online To Sell Ads (techcrunch.com) 73
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said this week on the TBPN podcast that one reason Perplexity is building its own browser is to 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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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- 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]
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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
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too bad Re:Thank you (Score:2)
for the past 6 months perplexity.ai (on a browser) has been the only LLM I use for general finding out about things.
Its been surprisingly capable and I like that it doesn't automatically bail out on controversial issues. Like it can engage like an adult would rather than just grade school approved takes.
What are good alternatives?
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*cough* cuecat! *cough*
Creepy (Score:2)
This company and its CEO should die in a fire.
Re: Creepy (Score:2)
What did fire do to you? Fire is a foundational human resource.
Maybe die in a mudslide? Volcano?
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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.
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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.
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If this makes you that angry, I recommend you avoid reading anything about Trump.
There is no limit ... (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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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.
Their strategy will be to get it preinstalled or otherwise trick people into using it.
Things like this will force more and more countries to adopt European style GDPR laws. That is not a bad thing.
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GDPR has less teeth than it seems to.
Meta and others are fine with the GDPR, as ir doesn't really hurt them. But they're extremely annoyed at Apple's privacy features, enough to sue them in European courts. And the EU sided with them against Apple, saying the GDPR is enough, that Apple's approach isn't needed, and that it must stop with that and use the GDPR alone.
The ad companies are very happy with that decision, and this tells everything that needs said on the matter.
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:5, Insightful)
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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?
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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!
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I am one.
I'd much rather see ads for shit I'm interested in, rather than random shit I would never buy, even with a gun to my head.
To that end, I'd be willing to truthfully complete a 10000 question survey for any company that can suitably guarantee I'd never see internet ads for shit that is irrelevant to me, provided that they share the resulting profile with me.
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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.
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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.
https://x.com/perplexity_ai/st... [x.com]
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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.
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Makes cellphone choise easier (Score:2)
I was thinking about getting a new cell phone but was perplexed by the choices. With Motorola phones off the table, it makes the decision easier. Perplexity is already making my life better and I've never even used it!
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I'm thinking the same thing. Maybe they think that they can do something that forces users to have to use that browser if they want to access certain sites, as an exclusive lock-in? This will get users to not frequent those sites, or if they have to, they will stick the brower in a VM which rolls back after browsing is done, and has built in firewalling to keep data from being exfiltrated.
Another way is to bundle the browser with things, and have it be a default. However, people will just wind up going w
So at least they're admitting it. (Score:2)
They're admitting to becoming Privacy Rapists.
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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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Curious (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Curious (Score:4, Insightful)
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 another.
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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
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You'd have to be at minimum very out of touch if you actually believe that. At no point in time have I ever wanted advertisements. I just skip them where possible and when that's not an option I tune them out. Advertisements are mental pollution.
Why would anyone trust an advertisement to begin with? They're entirely biased. The company is paying to tell you stuff, do you really think they're going to give us an unbiased honest and objec
the most relevant ad (Score:2)
the most relevant add for such a browser would be littlesnitch and the like . . .
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)
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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)
Personalized ads (Score:1)
what's the benefit to me? (Score:2)
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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)
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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)
that is, I only want clueless customers (Score:2)
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:3)
"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)
Take pride in your work (Score:4, Insightful)
[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)
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I could do with a couple well scrubbed high end servers. Will have to keep an eye on ebay in six months or so.
Commerce is culture (Score:2)
On my occasional visits to the USA I'm always struck how commerce is the culture. The people I come across don't really find it at all strange that everything is mediated by some business or other.
So while Americans might find it creep to be surveilled, I don't think they generally object to being constantly advertised to ("isn't that just... life?"), and would probably rather like more targeted advertising if they just didn't know about the surveillance (in the same way that spam fritters are tasty, as lon
Advertising is a scourge (Score:2)
It ruins everything and pollutes everywhere.
hahaha we all want relevant ads! (Score:2)
the arrogance of markers is insane. they all think that consumers will gobble up their ads if they were just a little more relevant.
relevancy isn’t the problem. the problem is ADS SUCK. fix that and we’ll be on our way.
And we would want this.... why?? (Score:2)
"Comet". Thanks for the advanced warning. Yeesh.
Does bespoke spam taste better? (Score:2)
What we've all be clamoring for all this time: better ads. Wow! Who knew?
Think about it this way... (Score:2)
A single user on chatGPT on a $20 monthly plan can burn through about $40,000 worth of compute in a month, before we start talking about things like agents and tooling schemes. Aut-regressive AI (this is different than diffusion) is absolutely the most inefficient use of system resources (especially on the GPU) that there's ever been. The cost vs spending equation is absolutely ridiculous, totally unsustainable, unless the industry figures out new and better ways to design LLM's that are RADICALLY different
Wrong reason to chose a browser (Score:3)
The reason I have stuck with Firefox despite the rise in popularity of Chrome is Firefox's ad blockers work pretty well where as Chrome has change support for ad blockers from time to time to better ensure income from ads.