Perplexity AI Sued for Secretly Sending Your Chats to Google and Meta

A bombshell class-action lawsuit alleges the AI search engine funneled user conversations — including Incognito mode chats — directly to ad giants without consent.

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Why It Matters

If you've ever asked Perplexity AI a personal question — about your health, your finances, your legal situation — the company may have been secretly sharing every word with Google and Meta's advertising platforms. That's the core allegation in a massive 135-page class-action lawsuit filed April 1, 2026 in federal court in San Francisco.

This isn't just another privacy fine-print dispute. The lawsuit claims Perplexity embedded tracking tools that transmitted the full text of user conversations — both your prompts and the AI's responses — to Google LLC and Meta Platforms Inc. The data allegedly flowed to these ad giants before Perplexity even processed it, and continued even when users had enabled the platform's Incognito mode.

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The Key Details

The plaintiff, identified as John Doe from Utah, filed the case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Doe v. Perplexity AI Inc., 3:26-cv-02803).

The class covers all users who chatted with Perplexity and had their information sent to Meta or Google between December 7, 2022 and February 4, 2026, excluding paid Pro and Max subscribers. A California-specific subclass is also included.

The allegations:

• Tracking tools embedded in Perplexity's code sent user chat data directly to Google and Meta
• Data was transmitted without user consent and without disclosure
• Even Incognito mode didn't protect users — trackers allegedly operated regardless
• Potential statutory damages of $5,000 per violation under California privacy laws

Perplexity's response: Chief Communications Officer Jesse Dwyer acknowledged a request for comment but said the company has "not been served any lawsuit that matches this description."

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The Bottom Line

This lawsuit strikes at the heart of a growing problem in AI: the gap between what users expect and what actually happens to their data. When someone uses an AI tool in "Incognito mode," they reasonably expect privacy. If these allegations hold up, Perplexity was doing the opposite — turning private conversations into advertising data.

For anyone who cares about AI privacy, this case is one to watch. It could set precedent for how AI companies handle user data and whether embedding ad-tech trackers in AI chat interfaces violates state privacy laws.

The case also arrives alongside a broader wave of AI privacy enforcement: a Colorado court just ruled that using AI tools doesn't eliminate privacy expectations (Morgan v. V2X), multiple states are signing new chatbot regulation bills, and AI-related privacy incidents jumped 56% in the past year.

The message is clear: AI companies can't treat your conversations as raw material for the ad economy.

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Sources: Local News Matters, Bloomberg, MediaPost