Perplexity: Browsers as TrackWare

I’m Alan Chapell. I’ve been working at the intersection of privacy, competition, advertising and music for decades and I’m now writing for The Monopoly Report. If you have a tip to share in confidence, find me on Twitter or Bluesky.

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WTF is a browser in 2025?

I’ve been asking myself that same question a lot over the past six months. Once upon a time, the browser’s role was fairly clear. Going back to the days of Netscape (with a bit of over simplification), the browser was an agent design to help a User surf the web. No more. No less. At some point, the browser took on the role of trying to protect users from things like pop-ups and other annoyances. And with time, the browser took an increasingly more active role in protecting privacy.

Yes, the browser might send a search query to a third-party search engine who would use that information for advertising purposes. In fact, browsers fought hard during the great Do Not Track debates to maintain that right to send referrer data to search engines. But the idea that the browser could grab all or most of the URLs visited as part of a larger monetization plan seemed completely off the table until recently.

What is a browser in the age of AI?

Today, (h/t TechCrunch) we have Perplexity’s CEO talking about its new browser COMET – where tracking all URLs in order to deliver targeted ads or whatever seems to be a core feature. I created a LinkedIn poll to gauge reader feedback, as a few things immediately came to mind for me:

1. Perplexity is unburdened by the history of the browser’s “traditional” role.

2. Browser economics have changed, so is it any wonder that browser roles should also change?

3. Browsers are now a product feature and not necessarily a stand alone product.

4. Comet’s footprint at launch will be tiny (i.e., is it even worth commenting on?)

Just to be clear. I’m not necessarily happy about the above.

Some of Perplexity’s approach here could be viewed as an example of the limits of the “move fast and break things” mantra. Personally, I never think its a great idea to come off like you’re operating in ignorance of a the ruleset in the marketplace - even if you’re goal is ultimately to disrupt that marketplace.

Nonetheless, I wonder if I’m being too old school here.

Does Privacy even matter?

Most of my colleagues in the privacy community have made their views clear - they do not take kindly to a browser operating as track-ware.

Conversely, my focus has been less on the browsers’ collective approach to privacy - other than to share skepticism that the PETs being adopted by browsers are really all that privacy preserving. I’m much more concerned about browsers: (a) stealing publisher IP and / or (b) engaging in potentially anticompetitive behaviors as they preference their ad tools over those of other companies.

So I’m open to a discussion as to whether its a bad thing for a browser to use URL history to personalize and target ads - provided that the user has clearly consented to such. For better or worse (mostly worse), that’s where we are in 2025.

Put another way, if you’re concerned that COMET might be crossing the line, I would respectfully suggest that the line is about a half-mile behind us already.

Privacy Variables

As I think about this, I wonder whether the privacy calculus changes if:

• The insights pulled from the URL string are used OUTSIDE of the browser environment? In the ads space, there’s a tendency to see everything as an ad network. I have no insights into Perplexity’s long term view, but it seems like they are mostly looking to use the URL string to make Perplexity’s underlying AI tools better. . I’m not sure what Perplexity will ultimately do here.

• Perplexity eventually includes more and more additional functionality such as an eCommerce component or social component?

In my view, it probably should (although remember: we’re already assuming Perplexity will obtain a consent). But scale of data collected isn’t a significant factor in the ruleset of most privacy laws. It probably should be, but that’s a different discussion for a different day.

And in my experience, moral arguments go over like a ton of bricks here in ad land.

What about Publisher IP?

Note: Whenever one discusses publisher IP in connection with an AI company like Perplexity, it’s easy to get lost in the sea of use cases involving AI model training. In my view, it's hard to argue that scraping of sites for AI without permission is anything other than stealing. Some AI companies are trying to make a “fair use” argument. And while I personally don’t see it, it’s still debatable point as of today. Anyway, that’s NOT what I’m writing about here.

Today, I’m focused on the idea of drawing insights from the browser’s URL string.

This particular IP issue seems to elude many browsers - and I think that’s a mistake. Browsers want to focus on privacy enhancing tech - which is fine. But even if a browser addresses the privacy concerns, they rarely seem to address the question re: whether its fair to publishers to pull the URL string to draw insights. Publishers sure don’t seem to like it when ad tech companies do it - so I’m not sure why a browser should be viewed differently.

Browsers as Distribution Tools

If one thing has been made clear by the Google search trial, it’s this: The Chrome browser is a key part of Google’s distribution strategy for its search engine. Perplexity COULD certainly be in position to gain from a Chrome divestment - regardless of whether or not Perplexity beats out today’s consensus front-runner Yahoo!. But either way, it’s at least helpful to have COMET as the distribution engine for Perplexity’s services.

Is a browser still a thing, or is it only part of a thing?

Where do you see the web browser going in a few years? Will the browser still be a standalone product? I’m not so sure. Even today, Chrome carries lots of functionality designed to be interoperable with Google’s other services like Google Maps and Gmail. Similarly, more and more mobile apps contain browsers.

In the case of Perplexity’s Comet browser, a question comes to mind. Is Comet designed to act as a “traditional” browser, or is Comet simply a vehicle designed to get you to the Perplexity’s AI Services in the same way that Meta’s in-App browser enhances its social networking capabilities?

Long term, my money is on the latter.

So we can debate the merits of whether a browser “owns” - and the degree to which it is therefore able to exploit - its users. And we can also debate whether it was prudent for Aravind Srinivas to have effectively said the quiet part out loud. But I don’t think its debatable that this is the direction we are heading here in digital media 2025.

So the question is - what if anything are you planning to do in response?

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