The Smartest Browser Yet (And Maybe The Creepiest, Too)

Donna Dror, CEO at Usercentrics, explains why the smartest browser yet might also be one of the scariest. This article originally appeared in Insight Jam, an enterprise IT community that enables human conversation on AI.

When OpenAI introduced its new Atlas browser, it crossed a threshold the tech industry has been moving toward for years: the shift from tracking what we do online to remembering who we are. Early adoption suggests the product is far from a breakout success, that traffic is low, and that it has yet to demonstrate mainstream appeal. But its significance isn’t in its numbers. Atlas signals where browsers are headed: toward systems that build “memories,” persistent profiles of every click, search, hesitation, comparison, impulse, or pattern. It does not simply observe behavior; it internalizes it, becoming the long-term biographer of a person’s digital life.

Even without wide adoption, the paradigm that Atlas introduces cannot be ignored. With it, the illusion of privacy on the modern web is undeniably challenged, but so is our opportunity to rethink it. Years of working at the intersection of technology, regulation, and user rights have made one thing clear: innovation moves faster than the frameworks designed to govern it. Atlas is not simply another step forward; it represents a new class of technology that both heightens risk and expands possibility.

AI systems that can form memories introduce questions our current laws were not built to answer. They also create a chance for organizations to differentiate themselves through stronger consent experiences, transparent data practices, and privacy-first design. Those that act now won’t just mitigate risk, they’ll build the foundation of user trust that will define the next decade of digital governance.

Traditional browsers collect data, but it has generally been transactional: cookies, IP addresses, ad IDs, and session history. Annoying, invasive at times, but ultimately limited. AI browsers rewrite this framework. A browser that tracks user context, such as how long they spend on a page or what they compare before buying, can reveal intent. Intent is the most valuable dataset in AI because it enables prediction, and prediction drives influence.

Atlas is positioned as a convenience tool that anticipates needs before a user voices them. The byproduct of this convenience is a system holding enough behavioral history to make inferences that feel uncomfortably personal. We don’t yet have a regulatory or ethical framework that fully accounts for this kind of persistent “super‑profile,” so the playbook is still being written. Browsers that continually learn from their users give us the chance to redesign it for a future where privacy and personalization can actually coexist.

Modern privacy laws assume that individuals can understand what data is collected and why. But AI models that generate new conclusions about a person do not fit within those assumptions. Even when users consent to data requests for personalization, AI may exceed users’ expectations by analyzing political leanings, stress levels, or inferring burnout from job-search behavior. That is the fundamental challenge.

Consent, as most laws define it, does not account for systems that infer more than they collect. This is why I believe the next major privacy challenge will not center on social media or cookies. It will center on AI, the last mile between individuals and the Internet. In this example, whoever controls the browser controls the behavioral funnel.

Regulators are still debating cookie disclosures while the industry builds tools that remember everything a person does online. The cost of retrofitting compliance later is always higher. Every major privacy scandal of the last decade, from Cambridge Analytica to repeated platform fines, reinforces the same truth: once trust is broken, it is extremely difficult to rebuild. And without that trust, even the most advanced AI struggles, because data quality matters just as much as data volume.

AI amplifies whatever it receives. If the underlying data is inaccurate, incomplete, unconsented to, or biased, the resulting predictions will be inaccurate, incomplete, unconsented to, or biased. A browser that remembers years of behavior becomes a single point of vulnerability. If the browser’s memory contains flawed information, the AI built upon it will multiply those flaws. Data governance is not simply a compliance requirement – it is both a financial strategy and a data strategy. Clean, consented, high-integrity data produces accurate AI outputs. Companies do not have an inherent right to a person’s behavioral history, but they can earn that right through transparency and accountability.

That is why I believe the next evolution of privacy will not be “Do Not Track” but enabling individuals to control what is remembered. Users should be able to understand what an AI browser is remembering, delete those memories, restrict inferences, limit retention periods, and browse without contributing to a permanent behavioral dossier, as many AI chatbots already do. Seatbelts were once controversial. Today, they are understood as basic infrastructure for safety. Privacy protections for AI browsers will follow the same path.

I’m strongly in favor of innovation. I lead a growing company that helps businesses adopt new technologies responsibly and profitably. AI has extraordinary value to offer both consumers and organizations. But intelligence without guardrails is not progress. It is a risk to both ethics and monetization. Atlas may be the smartest browser ever created. Without meaningful transparency, user control, and a new generation of consent standards, it is also the creepiest. And if we do not establish these guardrails now, we will spend years managing the fallout. The world’s smartest browser should advance innovation without compromising users’ rights. Before memory becomes the new surveillance, we need to decide what kind of Internet we want to live in.