AI search engine Perplexity has been accused of sharing user data with Meta and Google through embedding undetectable trackers.
The class action claims that when a Perplexity user logs into the AI search engine, trackers are downloaded to a user’s device. As a result, their conversations are tracked and shared with the two tech giants, even when browsing in ‘Incognito’ mode, Bloomberg first reported.
The anonymous Utah-based plaintiff, who refers to himself as John Doe in the lawsuit, says this tracking violates privacy laws, and that he’s seeking class certification for affected users.
The plaintiff claims he shared personal financial and tax information, investment portfolios and financial strategies with Perplexity. He accuses Perplexity of sharing entire prompts made by users, user email addresses, and if they subscribed to a free or paid tier.
In the lawsuit, he said he “was dismayed to discover that complete and partial transcripts of his communications with Perplexity were shared with Meta and Google every time that he interacted with Perplexity’s AI Machine.”
This lawsuit is a part of a broader wave of legal cases hitting Perplexity. The company was sued by Amazon over allegations of its AI agents crawling Amazon and bypassing security and private accounts.
Perplexity is also fighting copyright claims from The New York Times and News Corp over its unauthorised scraping of publisher content.
A Perplexity spokesperson has said the company hasn’t formally been served the lawsuit.
Consumer Data from AI Tools
This legal case raises questions about how user data from AI platforms is collected and used.
Users trust AI companies with their sensitive information and queries. This is unique when it comes to AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity because of their conversational interface, often gaining consumer trust effectively compared with other search tools.
However, there’s increasing pressure on AI companies to monetise their service, through advertising or ecommerce, particularly as AI firms have historically made the bulk of their money through paid subscriptions.
Moving forward, AI companies like Perplexity will likely be tasked by regulators with adopting stricter transparency and consent mechanisms, and clear policies on how user data is used.
