Perplexity Sued for Sharing User Conversations With Meta and Google Despite Incognito Mode Promises

A proposed class-action lawsuit accuses AI search engine Perplexity of embedding trackers from Meta and Google that shared user conversations, email addresses, and other personally identifiable information — even when paid users had enabled "Incognito" mode.

The lawsuit, first reported by Ars Technica, claims Perplexity "effectively planted a bug" on users' computers. The Incognito feature, marketed as a privacy tool, allegedly "does nothing" to protect user data from being transmitted to the two advertising giants.

The revelations are particularly damaging for Perplexity, which has positioned itself as a privacy-focused alternative to traditional search engines. The company raised over $500 million and was valued at approximately $9 billion.

Legal experts say the case could establish important precedent for how AI companies handle user data. "If the allegations are true, this goes beyond negligence — it's a fundamental betrayal of user trust," said a digital privacy attorney familiar with the case.

The lawsuit seeks class certification and unspecified damages for affected users. It joins a growing wave of litigation against AI companies over data handling practices, alongside cases filed by litigator Jay Edelson targeting OpenAI and Google over their LLM training methods.