For Doe, she was “appalled” to learn that full and partial transcripts of conversations discussing her family’s financial information had been shared with Google and Meta, along with her PII. He relies on Perplexity to manage his taxes, get legal advice and make investment decisions, the complaint says. Without an injunction blocking Perplexity’s alleged privacy harms, it would be blocked from using its preferred search engine, it complained.
Other users in the proposed class allegedly turned to Confusion, likely while exploring other sensitive topics. The companies allegedly designed the ad trackers to work “in secret” so that they could “use this sensitive information for their own benefit, including targeting individuals with advertising and selling their sensitive information to additional third parties.”
Perhaps most worryingly, people often use such AI systems to research health and medical information, especially when consulting with humans can be embarrassing or frustrating.
Perplexity, which takes advantage of users’ tendency to overshare with AI systems, appears to have been designed to require users to upload sensitive notes during chat sessions, the complaint said. This includes data that, if shared with Google and Meta, could result in users being suddenly targeted with ads that they “may find to be large, disturbing, or in many cases physically harmful,” the complaint says.
For example, Confusion: What is the best treatment for liver cancer? answers the main question. voluntarily, “If you share more details, I can help you interpret a specific scan report, biopsy result, or proposed treatment plan,” the complaint states.
Invasive trackers built into Perplexity’s AI search engine may include the Facebook Meta Pixel, Google Ads and Google Double Click, as well as what Meta calls a “Conversions API,” the lawsuit says. The complaint states that Meta advises partners to use this latest technology with the Meta Pixel, as it allegedly acts as a “workaround” to prevent “skilled users” from blocking Pixel tracking. Notably, Meta has faced several privacy lawsuits challenging the technology with some settlements, while Congress has stymied some former partners who used it. Followers from Google and Meta.
