Perplexity's 'Incognito Mode' Is a 'Sham,' Lawsuit Says
- Reference: 0181212700
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/04/03/0124202/perplexitys-incognito-mode-is-a-sham-lawsuit-says
- Source link:
> Perplexity's AI search engine encourages users to go deeper with their prompts by engaging in chat sessions that a lawsuit has alleged are [1]often shared in their entirety with Google and Meta without users' knowledge or consent . "This happened to every user regardless of whether or not they signed up for a Perplexity account," the lawsuit alleged, while stressing that "enormous volumes of sensitive information from both subscribed and non-subscribed users" are shared.
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> Using developer tools, the lawsuit found that opening prompts are always shared, as are any follow-up questions the search engine asks that a user clicks on. Privacy concerns are seemingly worse for non-subscribed users, the complaint alleged. Their initial prompts are shared with "a URL through which the entire conversation may be accessed by third parties like Meta and Google." Disturbingly, the lawsuit alleged, chats are also shared with personally identifiable information (PII), even when users who want to stay anonymous opt to use Perplexity's "Incognito Mode." That mode, the lawsuit charged, is a "sham."
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> "'Incognito' mode does nothing to protect users from having their conversations shared with Meta and Google," the complaint said. "Even paid users who turned on the 'Incognito' feature still had their conversations shared with Meta and Google, along with their email addresses and other identifiers that allowed Meta and Google to personally identify them."
"Perplexity's failure to inform its users that their personal information has been disclosed to Meta and Google or to take any steps to halt the continued disclosure of users' information is malicious, oppressive, and in reckless disregard" of users' rights, the lawsuit alleged.
"Nothing on Perplexity's website warns users that their conversations with its AI Machine will be shared with Meta and Google," Doe alleged. "Much less does Perplexity warn subscribed users that its 'Incognito Mode' does not function to protect users' private conversations from disclosure to companies like Meta and Google."
[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/perplexitys-incognito-mode-is-a-sham-lawsuit-says/
This data is used to negotiate your next salary (Score:2)
[1]Employers are using your personal data to figure out the lowest salary you will accept [marketwatch.com].
[1] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/employers-are-using-your-personal-data-to-figure-out-the-lowest-salary-youll-accept-c2b968fb
Gullibility (Score:2)
[1]"Incognito" [reddit.com] has been redefined to mean "we'll pretend we don't know who you are."
More generally, if you're talking to a robot that runs on someone else's machine, you should not be surprised if the machine owner spies on you. Maybe it shouldn't work this way - I'd say it definitely shouldn't, and the big outfits acknowledge this by pretending it doesn't - but that's the world we live in.
The assumption should always be that these robots are front ends to Zuckerberg's & Google's user profiling systems
[1] https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Ff2k5x8tzbsxf1.jpeg
Malicious, oppressive, and in reckless (Score:2)
Pretty much sums up the entire social-media/AI/surveillance hellscape the tech bros have gifted, errr, grifted us with.