Perplexity's "Incognito Mode" is a "sham," lawsuit says
google meta perplexity privacy
| Source: Mastodon | Original article
Perplexity AI is facing a fresh class‑action lawsuit that accuses the company of turning its “Incognito Mode” into a privacy illusion. Plaintiffs allege that, despite the feature’s promise to keep searches off the record, Perplexity routinely funnels chat logs—including personally identifiable information—through ad‑tracking scripts from Google and Meta. The data, the complaint says, is then sold to the two tech giants to boost advertising revenue, effectively betraying the anonymity users paid for.
The filing, first reported by Ars Technica, claims the breach affects both registered accounts and anonymous visitors, and that the company failed to disclose the trackers in its user agreement. Legal experts note that the allegation mirrors recent high‑profile AI privacy suits, such as the March 17 case where Britannica and Merriam‑Webster sued OpenAI over copyrighted content. Together, these actions signal a growing willingness to hold generative‑AI providers accountable for opaque data practices.
If the court finds Perplexity’s claims substantiated, the company could face injunctive relief forcing it to dismantle the hidden tracking infrastructure, as well as monetary damages for users whose personal data was exposed. Regulators in the EU and the United States have already signaled heightened scrutiny of AI‑driven data collection, and the case may become a testbed for how privacy promises are enforced under emerging AI‑specific legislation.
Watch for a response from Perplexity’s legal team, which is expected to argue that the trackers are standard industry tools and that no PII is transmitted without consent. The next steps will likely include a discovery phase that could reveal the scale of data sharing, and potentially prompt other AI firms to reassess their privacy architectures before further litigation piles up.
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