Perplexity's 'Incognito Mode' Is a 'Sham,' Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Over Data Sharing With Google and Meta
Key Takeaways
- ▸Perplexity allegedly shares complete and partial chat transcripts with Google and Meta via hidden ad trackers, affecting all users regardless of account status or privacy settings
- ▸The lawsuit claims Perplexity's 'Incognito Mode' is ineffective, with even paid users' conversations containing PII being shared with third parties
- ▸Sensitive data including financial records, health information, legal advice, and investment decisions are allegedly shared without user consent, enabling targeted advertising and data resale
Summary
A proposed class action lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that Perplexity's AI search engine secretly shares user conversations, including highly sensitive information, with Google and Meta via ad trackers without user knowledge or consent. The complaint claims this occurs across all users—both subscribed and non-subscribed—and that Perplexity's "Incognito Mode" provides no actual protection, as even paid users with the feature enabled had their chats, email addresses, and other personally identifiable information shared with the tech giants. The plaintiff, an anonymous user referred to as John Doe, alleges he unknowingly had transcripts of conversations discussing his family's financial data, tax information, legal advice, and investment decisions shared with Google and Meta. The lawsuit targets all three companies, characterizing the ad trackers as "browser-based wiretap technology" and arguing that Perplexity deliberately designed these trackers to operate "surreptitiously" to exploit sensitive user data for advertising and resale purposes.
- The complaint alleges Perplexity deliberately trains its system to encourage users to share sensitive documents, capitalizing on users' tendency to overshare with AI systems
