Perplexity 'Incognito' chats might not be so private, lawsuit claims

Perplexity and other tech companies are in hot water for allegedly violating users’ privacy. A proposed class action filed by an anonymous Perplexity user this week accuses the AI firm of sharing sensitive information with both Google and Meta without user consent, even information entered into Perplexity’s ostensibly privacy-focused Incognito Mode.

As Ars Technica reports, the suit accuses Perplexity of using ad trackers from both Google and Meta without disclosing those integrations to users, comparing the low-profile trackers to wiretaps. User information gathered from Perplexity interactions is shared with both other companies, the complaint alleges, in order to target ads based on that info.

The suit says that initial prompts entered into Perplexity by users signed into Perplexity accounts are always fed into Google’s and Meta’s ad platforms, and so are any reply options the user clicks on throughout the interaction. In the case of users who aren’t signed in, “the entire conversation may be accessed by third parties like Meta and Google.”

Data shared with Google and Meta by Perplexity allegedly includes personally identifiable information, regardless of whether that information was entered into Perplexity’s Incognito Mode (which the suit calls a “sham”).

In addition to accusing Perplexity of sharing identifiable information with third parties, the suit also says that Perplexity doesn’t require users to agree to its privacy policy before using its service, and that finding that policy at all is rather difficult: it’s not linked to from the Perplexity web app.

The anonymous complainant says that he used Perplexity for a variety of sensitive purposes, including to obtain financial and legal advice.

Google and Meta are also targeted in the suit, which accuses the companies of neglecting to enforce their own policies that may have prevented their trackers from being deployed in this way.

The proposed class that could eventually be eligible for compensation would include some Perplexity users in the US whose chats were shared with Google and Meta between late 2022 and early 2026. Damages in the suit could be steep, Ars reports, potentially exceeding $5,000 per each individual violation, of which there may be millions.