Perplexity Comet Browser Tracks Users for Targeted Ads Like Google

In the ever-shifting landscape of search engines and digital assistants, new contenders occasionally arrive, eager to challenge the old order. Recently, I found myself scrutinising a particularly bold entrant—Perplexity AI’s Comet browser. The way it sets its sights on Google’s dominance is striking enough, but what truly caught my attention was the blunt admission from Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas: Comet will actively track user activity, collecting data to fuel hyper-targeted advertising.

If you’re anything like me, this sort of statement raises as many eyebrows as it does questions. My own relationship with browsers and AI assistants, both as a marketer and user, has wrestled constantly with this balance: convenience at the cost of privacy. Below, I’ll take you through what Comet promises, how it works, and why its approach to user tracking invites both optimism and legitimate scepticism.

The Rise of Perplexity AI and the Launch of Comet

Perplexity AI may not (yet) share Google’s household-name status, but anyone who’s tracked advanced AI developments will have heard the ripples left by its bold projects. In July 2025, the company, boasting backing from titans such as NVIDIA, earned headlines with the launch of Comet: a browser built atop Chromium—the same open-source skeleton underlying Google Chrome.

From the get-go, Perplexity positioned Comet as a browser redesigned for the modern age—one marked by integration with agentic AI and a powerful, in-house search engine. As someone who’s watched many a “Google killer” come and go, I approached these claims with polite amusement. But then, as more technical details emerged, my curiosity got the better of me.

Key Players and Their Vision

• Aravind Srinivas at the helm, bringing pedigree from OpenAI, Google Brain, and DeepMind
• Investment from the likes of NVIDIA and support from Jeff Bezos’ fund
• A mission to “change the way people interact with the web”—heady language, but with plenty of substance packed into it, as we shall see

What Makes Comet Tick?

At first glance, Comet slots into the familiar browser template. Open it up on Windows or macOS (sorry, mobile enthusiasts—you’ll have to wait), and you’re greeted with what looks like any other modern browser. Appearances, however, deceive.

Main Features & Functionalities

• Comet Assistant: The built-in agentic AI doesn’t just suggest links; it actually steps in to complete tasks. Need your emails summarised? Looking to tidy up your calendar? Or perhaps you’re hunting down the best deal for a particular gadget? The assistant jumps straight in, often bypassing multiple tedious steps in favour of concise, actionable outcomes.
• Delegation via Commands: Think of how you’d instruct a PA. “Find me a direct flight to Edinburgh, compare prices, and book the best option.” With Comet, those instructions aren’t just theoretical—its AI parses your intent, queries the web, and presents you with ready-to-use results.
• Automation Integration: As someone who’s nearly lost weekends to planning holidays, the ability to generate a full Google Maps trip itinerary in one fell swoop (using just a handful of prompts) borders on the miraculous.
• Platform Support: As of writing, Comet is firmly desktop-only, with support for Windows and macOS. Word around the grapevine is a mobile version is in the pipeline, but we’ll all have to wait a bit longer.

From my own experience, these sorts of AI-driven workflows are a godsend, especially when you’re juggling multiple deadlines or just plain old admin. Letting an assistant manage the grunt work—while you focus on higher-order thinking—doesn’t sound half bad.

AI-Powered Personalisation—Blessing or Curse?

With great automation, however, comes an even greater pile of user data. And that’s where the ethical complications emerge. Perplexity has been refreshingly direct about its intent: the data the browser collects is earmarked for commercialisation, specifically for what Srinivas calls “hyperprecise” advertising.

• This approach mirrors Google’s playbook, leveraging everything from browsing history to contextual behaviour to serve up ads that practically finish your sentences.
• For advertisers (including those of us deep in the marketing trenches), this opens up opportunities for pinpoint targeting, campaign optimisation, and detailed customer insight.
• For regular users? The classic bargain rears its head: enhanced convenience and relevant deals, traded for privacy and autonomy.

To be honest, there’s something almost laudable about the lack of sugar-coating. Most companies skirt around the topic; Perplexity lays it out on the line.

How Does Comet Work? Under the Hood

Delving a little deeper, the technical architecture of Comet fascinates me as someone with a professional stake in automation. Rather than passive link-surfing, users find themselves in “conversation” with the web—querying, refining, iterating—while the browser’s AI sits quietly in the background, both learning and acting.

• Agentic AI Model: Unlike typical AI chatbots tethered to a fixed prompt, Comet’s assistant “remembers” your behaviour across sessions. It fine-tunes its responses, referencing your past actions to deliver ever-more relevant results.
• Chromium Foundation: The shared roots with browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge ensure familiarity, while layered AI modules provide the real differentiation.
• Refined Results vs. Raw Listings: One of the biggest pain points I’ve noticed in traditional browsers is the deluge of irrelevant links. Comet filters, synthesises, and often gives you a direct answer, not just a maze of options.

Business Model and Accessibility: Who Gets to Use Comet?

At launch, Comet kept itself surprisingly exclusive. Access is basically pay-to-play: subscribe to Perplexity Max for a rather eye-watering $200/month, or secure yourself an invite from a finite wait list. This model has created a sense of cachet among early adopters—think of it like joining a slightly secret club—but Perplexity has made no secret of its plans for future public release.

The Future: From Paid to Ad-Supported?

• Current state: High-priced subscription or invite-based entry
• Planned trajectory: Free, universal availability supported by contextually targeted advertising
• Obvious caveat: The more accessible Comet becomes, the greater the volume of user data collected—for better and for worse

The unmissable parallel, of course, is Google’s own journey: from scrappy startup to the world’s most valuable ad business by commodifying user attention.

The Privacy Dilemma: Where Do You Draw the Line?

And now, the crux—do I, or you for that matter, feel comfortable trading control of our digital histories for the sake of a smarter, quicker, seemingly more empathetic digital assistant? With Comet, the terms are painfully clear: your data in return for hyper-targeted advertising and personal convenience.

This is where opinion splinters. Among my peers, reactions run the gamut:

• Pragmatists, who shrug: “It’s the price we pay—we might as well make the most of it.”
• Purists, agitated by the notion of rampant data brokerage, steer as far from tracking as possible—even if it means sacrificing productivity.
• Entrepreneurs and marketers (myself included), who see data-driven advertising both as a tactical advantage and a potential ethical minefield.

The Google Blueprint

We can’t escape the fact that this is a well-trodden path. Google’s ad empire has, for years, rested on parsing web activity, email context, and search intent. The difference? Perplexity doesn’t bother with obfuscation. There’s no latticework of privacy policies muddying the waters; the offer is direct.

Perplexity wants to be the new Google. CEO Aravind Srinivas openly admitted that the new Comet browser will track users’ online activity to sell them “hyper…” (adapted from source material).

Hands-On: Using Comet in Everyday Life

Rather than speak in hypotheticals, let me walk you through some “real world” scenarios that highlight both Comet’s strengths and its pitfalls.

1. Email Triage & Workflow Management

A towering inbox on a Monday morning used to be the bane of my existence. With Comet, the AI breezily summarises everything for me—flagging the urgent, glossing over the trivial, even drafting responses if asked. In theory, it should leave me more time for creative work, though I will admit there’s something unnervingly intimate about a browser combing through my private correspondence.

2. Research Assistance

When preparing a client presentation, time spent sifting through reams of search results can quickly spiral. Comet’s contextual search produces not just a tidy list of links, but consolidated summaries and (sometimes eerily accurate) suggestions for additional reading. While it hasn’t quite replaced my own discerning eye, it often does the heavy lifting.

3. Planning and Automation

The holiday example rings especially true for me—I’ve spent entire afternoons only to end up with an itinerary that could’ve been crowdsourced in minutes. Comet’s ability to take a general directive (“Organise me a four-day trip to the Alps with day-by-day route planning”) and output a ready-to-use plan feels like that friend who always knows the best spots.

Yet, as it builds that itinerary, the volume of data it processes—from my calendar inputs to past search history—remains impossible to ignore.

4. Shopping and Comparison

As a marketer, I can’t help but marvel—and worry a tad—at how quickly Comet locates a product, soaks up my past preferences, and serves up eerily apt recommendations. In one test, I requested headphones, and within moments, Comet had not only pulled price and availability across retailers but also parsed user reviews and thrown in suggestions based on my browsing trends.

There’s a certain “wow” factor there, but it does make the browser feel less like an impartial tool and more like a softly-spoken personal shopper who’s been shadowing you for months.

Potential Benefits: Where Comet Shines

It’s not all “doom and gloom.” In fact, from a business, marketing, and even personal productivity standpoint, Comet has already started to turn heads for several reasons.

• Substantial time savings: For busy professionals, being able to offload repetitive research, filtering, and admin to AI genuinely lightens the load.
• Enhanced relevance: Those “hyper-targeted” recommendations aren’t just for ads—they extend to content, opportunities, and even workflow suggestions.
• Better integrations with current productivity suites and calendars—integral for anyone who depends on seamless digital routines.
• Reduced friction in researching and decision-making—especially handy for everything from daily news catch-ups to larger-scale strategic projects.

Having tested dozens of productivity tools in my time—many of them flashy, few of them genuinely groundbreaking—I can say with a straight face that Comet feels like more than just a skin-deep rebrand of tired old workflows.

Risks and Controversies: Why Not Everyone Is on Board

Of course, every silver lining comes with its cloud. Comet, despite its promise, faces criticism in a few key areas.

• Data security and ownership: As Comet scrapes ever-wider swathes of user behaviour, questions regarding who truly owns that data (and how securely it’s stored) take on fresh urgency.
• User consent: While I appreciate Perplexity’s upfront approach, it remains to be seen whether everyday users will have meaningful, accessible controls over what is shared and when.
• AI “overreach”: When a digital assistant starts anticipating everything from mood swings to dietary preferences, the risk of excessive or “creepy” personalisation grows. Not everyone will welcome the sense of surveillance that necessarily follows.
• Economic model dependency: Built-in monetisation via targeted ads could incentivise data-hoarding and aggressive commercial tactics—potentially eroding user trust over time.

As someone who’s both implemented and encountered automated marketing tools in the wild, I know firsthand that a poorly handled privacy blunder can be disastrous—not only in terms of compliance but also brand reputation. For Perplexity, careful navigation is paramount.

The Competitive Landscape

How Does Comet Stack Up Against the Giants?

The browser landscape is crowded: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Safari… It takes confidence, if not outright bravado, to challenge these incumbents.

• Google Chrome: The current gold standard for speed, extension compatibility, and ecosystem integration. However, its own ad-driven model has drawn criticism for privacy practices nearly identical to those Perplexity now embraces.
• Microsoft Edge: Leans on AI (such as Copilot) but lacks the deep agentic integration and “conversation-first” paradigm Comet champions.
• Specialty Browsers: Privacy-forward browsers like Brave and DuckDuckGo offer contrasting visions—less customisation, fewer advertisements, at the expense of much less sophisticated personalisation.

Forthcoming Rivals

Rumours are swirling about OpenAI developing a similar AI-first browser. Should this materialise, we’re likely to witness a showdown between two data-hungry models, each aiming to outdo the other in both automation and, ironically, user trust.

From my vantage point, it’s as much about perception as it is about technical execution: How well can these companies communicate the value of their “trade-offs” while minimising the ick factor?

Regulatory and Ethical Considerations

With the EU and other authorities busy tightening digital privacy rules, any browser that actively tracks and markets user information risks landing in hot water. For marketers accustomed to tightening compliance around GDPR and CCPA, Comet’s model is a tricky balancing act.

• Transparency is non-negotiable: The more up-front you are, the better. Yet, too much candour can put off privacy-conscious users.
• Data minimisation: Collect only what’s necessary. It remains to be seen whether Comet’s AI can do its job with a “lean” dataset rather than gorging on everything.
• Right to be forgotten and opt-out: Mechanisms must be provided to allow for comprehensive user control, erasure, and genuine consent.

Having grappled with privacy concerns in digital campaigns, I’m keenly aware that negative headlines can knock years off a product’s growth curve. Comet’s future, in this sense, may depend less on technical mastery and more on its ability to foster an authentic sense of user trust.

What Should Marketers and Business Owners Watch For?

If you’re running digital campaigns or developing customer journeys, Comet’s data-rich ad model is both an opportunity and a cautionary tale. The advantages are obvious:

• Hyper-specific targeting: Reduced wastage and increased conversion potential due to granular user segments.
• Real-time feedback: The AI’s relentless monitoring yields campaign insights that are almost impossibly granular—think heatmaps on steroids.
• Automated campaign adjustments: As a marketing specialist, the thought of AI subtly tweaking content and offers in response to shifting audience behaviour is genuinely enticing.

Yet, with all new data streams come proportional responsibilities. How data is collected, stored, and—crucially—made accessible for opt-out will demand careful attention. I’d recommend all marketing professionals keep a close eye on Comet’s evolving compliance mechanisms.

Risks for Early Adopters

• Regulatory exposure: New tools lacking established legal precedents risk running afoul of data protection laws. I’ve seen teams scramble overnight in response to audit notices—best to prepare early.
• Brand positioning: Over-zealous data targeting can be a brand turn-off, pushing users towards rivals who emphasise privacy and restraint.
• Reputational fragility: Should a highly publicised data incident occur, association with the tool—even as a third-party campaign manager—could spell disaster.

In the rapid-fire world of digital marketing, agility is a boon. But with platforms like Comet, so too is caution.

User Reflections: Would I Recommend Comet?

Having lived with Comet for a spell, I’m both impressed and slightly unnerved. There’s a lot to love: efficiency, relevancy, and the dream of genuinely “conversational” web navigation. But there’s no denying the Faustian pact at its core.

• If you’re deadline-driven, and willing to cede some privacy for pure productivity, Comet might feel like you’ve finally found your missing puzzle piece.
• If, however, you bristle at the idea of your online self being sliced, diced, and auctioned to the highest bidder—not just for display ads, but for a spectrum of commercial outcomes—well, you’ll want to watch this space carefully.

What I can’t deny is the sense that Comet is a harbinger. The very transparency that sets it apart may be its greatest asset—or its biggest risk.

Conclusions: Navigating the New Search Assistant Landscape

With Comet, Perplexity has set out to upend the way we approach browsers. It folds personal assistant capabilities into the search process, turning every user query into an act of collaboration with AI. Business users and marketers, in particular, may find its promise alluring—so long as they keep a careful eye on privacy trade-offs.

• Comet’s agentic model is, in practice, a time-saver with a razor-sharp focus on relevance.
• The open admission of user tracking, while refreshing, puts user consent issues front and centre.
• Advertisers stand to benefit from unprecedented personalisation, but only if they tread thoughtfully.

As competitors—most notably OpenAI—prep their own entries, and as privacy watchdogs take closer notice, this new breed of browser marks a shift in both promise and peril. From where I stand, the winner won’t be the one with the most data, but the one who earns—then keeps—our trust.

And as I sign off, I can only say: shop wisely, browse securely, and—if you dare—let your digital assistant do a bit of the heavy lifting. Just don’t be surprised if it remembers more than you expect.