Perplexity, Meta, Google Hit With Privacy Suit

A Utah man alleges in a new lawsuit that artificial
intelligence company Perplexity shares “complete transcripts” of users’ chats with Google and Meta, via analytics tools embedded in Perplexity’s online site.

“No reasonable
person would have expected that Perplexity would share complete transcripts of their conversations … with companies like Meta and Google. But that is what Perplexity did,” the plaintiff, proceeding
anonymously as John Doe, alleges in a 140-page class-action complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco.

“The intimate health and financial information that users
regularly share with Perplexity is some of the most private information about a user,” the complaint alleges.

“Meta and Google knew that the data collected and received from
Perplexity’s AI machine included intimate personal health and financial data — but they did nothing to stop Perplexity from sharing this data because it is vital to their business models,” the
plaintiff adds. (The complaint refers to Perplexity’s search engine an “AI machine.”)

The complaint includes claims that the companies violated various privacy laws, including
California’s wiretapping statute.

The Utah resident specifically alleges that he engaged in multiple chats with Perplexity’s search engine about “tax advice, legal advice, and
investing.”

Those dialogues allegedly “included personal information about his family’s finances, his tax obligations, his investment portfolio, and his…