Perplexity CEO says its browser will track everything users do online to sell 'hyper personalized' ads

This is the biggest anti-endorsement I've ever heard. Thank you for telling us all that. I will absolutely never be using this browser.

Sad to think there will be real people who are fine with the privacy invasive spyware
- my ex fiance loved personalized ads because that's how she found out about products she wanted and i was like… but you didn't want it before you knew it existed. you were just living your life perfectly fine and now you're $20 poorer
  
  You obviously need a privacy-conscious fiance
- and they are your closest friends
  
  Haha yup the amount of times I've tried to educate friends/family only to feel like banging my head against a brick wall would be more effective are far too many

And they want to buy Chrome
Hell to the absolute fuckin' no.
- Fuck Chrome anyways
  
  It's still the most widely used browser, even if it doesn't individually effect you doesn't mean it's not bad
- Chrome is already pretty close to this. People still using it are a mystery to me as it is.
  
  There's also Chrome-derivatives and Chromium and whether those could excise the AI spyware and how deep that gets embedded into it.
- That actually sounds like a good thing. Google has only been going down this exact path anyways with Chrome, at least if this happened it would make headlines and more people would wake up and leave that nightmare browser.

Blip. Just like that, they are dead to me. I know our society has decided super invasive data collection for ads is okay... I've decided that is another part of the social contract we need to revisit. With prejudice.
- never mind about accepting the things we cannot change, it's time to start changing the things we cannot accept
- I still haven't come down to terms with ads being accepted
- tbh i’ll just keep using perplexity without using the browser, still firefox with ublock for me
  
  Nah, I won't give them my clicks, nor my data.

Even by CEO standards, why would you state that out loud?
- Srinivas believes that Perplexity’s browser users will be fine with such tracking because the ads should be more relevant to them.
  He's so out of touch that he believes their users are going to be excited by this.
  “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.
  The personal integrity of others is a concept completely lost on this person, it seems.
  
  The personal integrity of others is a concept completely lost on this person, it seems.
  If you have no integrity yourself, it's hard to understand that others do.
- The message is aimed at his customers (ie. his advertisers), not for the potential users of the browser.
  
  Maybe he's really drank the kool aid and ACTUALLY thinks people want ads and no privacy. Which then, as an investor, might actually be a giant red flag that he's a complete imbecile.
  
  Obviously, but it's still not something you want getting out. Like you'd tell your clients at a vendor dinner but wouldn't put it in an email or video conference.
- the main goal of tech startups is to get take investors money and run away, so of course their rhetoric is aimed to investors.

Never use Perplexity, got it.
I'm old, I don't browse the web on my phone, anyway.
- And I used to recommend it to people over ChatGPT. 😭 Because it doesn't require you to log in. Enshittification really is everywhere now.

Ads should be illegal
- So should subtractions!
- while I hate ads as much as everyone else what do you propose funds all the sites people use that are high in operating costs? I doubt many people will pay five bucks a month for every site they use. The internet will just be more retro, which I think would be fine.
  
  Brave attempted to do something along those lines with BAT Never caught on.

capitalism inspiring innovation right before our eyes.

I presume this browser is going to have an install base of about 1? Depending on how many testers they have.
- Testing is doubting anyways, amirite?
- If you had read the article, it's going to come pre-installed on Moto and probably Samsung phones.
  
  So user error, should have got Linux.

Fuck that guy sucking my time with his ads. If I want to buy a ladder I'll go online, or go to the store and buy one. Once all this world ending shit dies down let's get rid of "advertising" as an economic concept. We don't need any more socio/economic engineering, we need humanity and ecology.
- Ads after you buy a ladder: "Yes, you've had one ladder, but what about a second ladder?"
  
  Based on your former shopping, here’s what other shoppers have looked.
- i think some form of advertising is useful no matter the structure of your society: if you have a cool idea for a new product, getting the word out is an important way of making it a reality
  what we don’t need is the constant, and ever-present repetitive drone of advertising mundane things that you already know about

Well im definitely not gonna use it then. It's also apparently being built on top of Chromium so its not like its a brand new browser engine or anything. I wonder if they even had human programmers work on it, or just let their own AI churn out some slop for them.

Damn, you'd really think these bozos would have learned to read a room by now, you know?
- Nearly half of the country is dumb enough to support Trump. I think he is reading the room.

I want to say a thing that I want to happen to this ceo but it would get me banned.
- Just say "I wish for this man, his ideas and his life work to slide into disregard and irrelevance and become nothing more than a footnote on idiocy".
  
  "Also, may he be abducted by aliens, whisked away to a distant galaxy, and put on permanent display in an alien zoo as an example of the greed of homo sapiens."
- Do you think this guy would avoid saying a thing? No, he'd come right out and tell you if he wanted you dead. As long as he could provide your with personalised ads in the afterlife.
- i'll take the hit
  i hope he gets put up against a wall and shot
- Sent to the glue factory?
  
  Send more blue shells?
- Are we not allowed to talk about Luigi anymore? Is nowhere safe????
  
  Send more blue shells
- Ok then say it.

Firefox forks and uBlock Origin all day.

Cool, I’m done with Perplexity.

For the last time I don’t want Jenna Haze shower curtains!!!!
- That’s not what the restraining order says.
  
  "Does Jenna Haze still have a restraining order on me"
  Damnit! More naked pictures!

Welcome to real life: advertisement is seen as filth. People might tolerate it in exchange for something else, but being "targetted" doesn't make them less filthy; on the contrary, once you get how it's being targetted at the expense of your privacy, comparing it with dog shit becomes unfair - because dog shit is less worse.
As such I want to see Perplexity bankrupt.

ghoul

Srinivas believes that Perplexity’s browser users will be fine with such tracking because the ads should be more relevant to them.
I can't speak for anyone else but no, I would not be fine with that

So is this another tech-bro sniffing his own farts, or does he have some plan to force the browser on people?
Edit: After reading the article, it's both.
He's basically talking about toppling google in terms of ads and saying that users will be fine with the tracking because the ads will be more relevant. There's also a Motorla partnership and it will come pre-installed on their Razr series. There is talks of one with Samsung as well, and they would have zero issue forcing that browser on their customers as long as they get a copy of the data.
- That is one major reason I will no longer use a phone that doesnt let me easily uninstall their garbage. It is all spyware.

So it's not going to be available in the EU and UK? That's fine.
As I understand it, the GDPR would require explicit consent from the subject before this data could be gathered in the first place, with some significant fines if breached.

Neat. Can we have access to everything he does online?

I read that as "Perplexed CEO" and it kind of fits IMO.

"Nobody liked that."

No thanks

Oh fuck right off, you ghoul.

Very cool stuff, Mr. Technofascist!

Hey, that sounds like a terrible idea.

perplexed about the value proposition here

I'm morbidly curious as to how well they could do trying to get my profoundly cheap self to spend money.

google has been dying to do this for ages, they might just follow perplexity example.

He is openly and honestly trying to out Google, Google!
Doing well so far...

Once it becomes popular ... then they'll play down their focus on wanting to track everything ... dress it up in pretty colours and some kind of swoosh ... then sell it as a feel good product ... five years later everyone is complaining that they are being tracked and that the company is using hyper personalized ads

And I’m happy to let this bro know. I will never use your product. Go suck a cows nipple. Ya removed.

Oh just what I wanted. Perplexing,ayoooo

Guess I'll cancel my free trial.

I don't know what Perplexity is but I know I don't want it.
Let me guess, two guys in a garage, both Linked In "CEO"s, strapping more spyware to Chromium?
I even went to the website. It doesn't what they are, but it's something to do with AI, which figures...

inb4 they try to take control of Chromium

Thats it im only browsing gopher from now on.

I'm just shocked Motorola is still ticking along, making cell phones.
- They make some solid devices

Oh, word?

To be fair, they're targeting people who WANT to be tracked, in return for personalized ads. If that's not you (or me), just ignore their entire platform.
Bold move. Let's see how it pans out.
- Have you heard of the term "enshittyfication" ?
- Which is, according to their cooked market surveys, most people. 76% prefer "relevant" ads.

this is pretty funny, a great example of how tech startups only care about selling their stuff to investors.