AI Search Engine Perplexity Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Fake Incognito Mode

AI search engine Perplexity is facing a class-action lawsuit, accused of having a fake 'incognito mode' that fully shares users' chat records with Google and Meta for ad targeting. The lawsuit, filed by an anonymous user, alleges serious privacy violations by Perplexity.

Investigations show that regardless of whether users are logged in or have privacy protections enabled, their conversation content is leaked via embedded trackers like Facebook Meta Pixel, Google Ads, and Meta's Conversions API (often used to bypass ad blockers). Many users have used Perplexity to ask about private matters like taxes, legal issues, and health, and these sensitive data have been obtained by third parties. Additionally, Perplexity did not clearly inform users about data sharing and had no privacy policy link on its homepage, making it hard for users to notice.