By Caroline Ryan
Publication Date: 2026-04-04 17:31:00
A class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California yesterday, alleging that Perplexity AI shared users’ personal information with Meta Platforms Inc and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, in violation of California privacy laws.
The lawsuit — Doe v. Perplexity AI Inc., 3:26-cv-02803, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco) — filed by a Utah man identified as John Doe stated that he shared personal information about his taxes, investments and family finances with the AI chatbot, believing those conversations were private, Bloomberg first reported.
Doe claimed the AI company integrated “undetectable” tracking software into its search engine code, which automatically sends users’ conversations to Meta, Google and other third parties.
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“We have not been served any lawsuit that matches this description, so we are unable to verify its existence or claims,” Jesse Dwyer, chief communications officer for Perplexity, wrote in a statement to Benzinga.
The lawsuit also accused Meta and Google of violating state and federal computer privacy and fraud laws.
Perplexity and Others in Court
This was not the first time that Perplexity has been sued.
Last month, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction preventing Perplexity from using its Comet browser’s AI agent to enter password-protected areas of Amazon’s website and make purchases for users.
The lawsuit alleged the company…
