Many left traditional search engines, such as Google, for AI chatbots because they wanted conversational answers that felt private and personal. Users even uploaded tax records, discussed legal disputes, shared medical worries and asked questions they would never post publicly on social media.
A new class action lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California claims information entered into ChatGPT was transmitted to Meta and Google through tracking technology embedded into the ChatGPT website.
The complaint says, “Defendant disclosed information provided by consumers to Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”) and Google, LLC (“Google”) (together, the “Third Parties”) by incorporating technology owned by each third party into the code of its website.”
The filing also says, “Defendant aided and assisted the Third Parties with intercepting Plaintiff’s communications, including those that contained personally identifiable information (“PII”), and related confidential information. Defendant aided and assisted these interceptions without Plaintiff’s knowledge, consent, or express written authorisation.”
That creates an uncomfortable reality for users who believed moving away from Google Search meant their information would no longer pass through Google owned technology.
How Normal Is This Kind Of Online Tracking?
Website tracking tools have existed for years. Retailers, publishers, travel websites and social media platforms use analytics software to understand customer activity and advertising performance.
Cybernews quoted information security researcher Aras Nazarovas, who said, “Using Google Analytics and Facebook’s tracking pixels is very common across most websites, no matter the industry. These are industry standard services, even though they’re definitely not very privacy friendly.”
Nazarovas also said, “Seems like a pretty weak case to me. OpenAI’s privacy policy does disclose that it shares your information with a ton of third parties, including advertisement partners.”
That legal fight may depend on how courts interpret privacy policies and user consent. Many people accept terms and conditions without reading long sections about analytics systems and third party data sharing.
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The lawsuit also comes after users started treating AI chatbots like personal advisers. We’ve seen the rise and with new features such as ChatGPT’s new personal finance tool, users will be disappointed to learn this is happening.
Research referenced in the complaint from Cyberhaven estimated, “The average company leaks confidential material to ChatGPT hundreds of times per week.” Businesses now upload all kinds of internal documents into AI systems every day.
Why Are Tech Rivals Sharing Data Systems?
The lawsuit also comes as OpenAI and Apple move toward a serious breakdown in their partnership. There was the recent news that OpenAI hired an outside law firm to examine legal options against Apple after frustration over the companies’ AI arrangement.
Apple integrated ChatGPT into Siri and its Apple Intelligence platform in 2024. OpenAI reportedly believed the agreement would produce millions of paid subscriptions through iPhone exposure.
Apple has also tested AI systems from Anthropic and Google Gemini. That means competing AI companies now rely on each other’s technologies.
A user may type personal information into ChatGPT on an iPhone while logged into Google services and interacting with Meta owned tracking systems through the same browser session. Rival companies now operate through overlapping technology ecosystems rather than isolated platforms.
Consumers often assume they are dealing with one company at a time. but modern internet systems rarely work that way anymore.
What Could Happen To AI Privacy?
AI companies want users to trust chatbots with personal tasks because those systems become more useful when users provide detailed personal context.
That creates a difficult privacy problem because AI conversations contain much more personal information than ordinary internet searches. People write entire explanations instead of typing short keyword searches into a search engine.
Hopefully, the lawsuit brings better ways to go about handling data across platforms, because this could really impact user trust.
