AI Advisory
Class Action Alleges Perplexity Secretly Fed User Chats to Meta and Google
Read the court filing between class-action plaintiffs and Perplexity AI, which alleges Perplexity was feeding user chats, including private info, to Google and Meta.
Legal Brief
The filing
John Doe v. Perplexity AI, Inc., Meta Platforms, Inc., and Google LLC, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, filed March 31, 2026.
What happened
A class action alleges that Perplexity secretly embedded tracking technologies, including Meta Pixel, Google Ads, and Google Firebase, into its AI search engine and transmitted users’ private conversations to Meta and Google without consent. Users sharing sensitive health and financial details had no idea their dialogues were being harvested for advertising profiles, and even Perplexity’s paid “Incognito” mode allegedly failed to prevent the sharing. The suit claims violations of California privacy and wiretapping law, with Meta and Google accused of knowingly receiving and exploiting the data.
Why it matters
The case shows why AI governance is urgent: without oversight, AI tools can covertly route sensitive user data to third parties, creating serious legal, reputational, and regulatory exposure for enterprises.
JetStream’s take
If a “private” mode still leaks data, the lesson for enterprises is that AI data flows must be verified, not trusted to a vendor’s marketing label.
Source
John Doe v Perplexity Ai, Inc, Meta Platforms, Inc., And Google, Llc by chelsea.stark.ctr
