--- title: "OpenAI Accused of Handing Over Your Intimate Personal Information to Meta and Google" description: "A new class action lawsuit accuses OpenAI of sharing intimate user data with Google and Meta without consent." date: "2026-05-14" modified: "2026-05-14" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/openai-personal-information-meta-google" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" --- # OpenAI Accused of Handing Over Your Intimate Personal Information to Meta and Google ![OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is shown with a serious expression. The background features a large, blurred circular light or design element. The image has a reddish-orange tint.]() *Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images; Futurism* A new class action lawsuit accuses OpenAI of sharing data including user chat queries and personal identifying information like emails and user IDs with the tech giants — and targeted advertising behemoths — Meta and Google, without obtaining proper user consent. Filed yesterday in California, the [lawsuit]() claims that OpenAI's data-sharing with Google and Meta violates the California Invasion of Privacy Act, known as [CIPA](), as well as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. It [points specifically]() to OpenAI's integrations with [Meta Pixel]() and [Google Analytics](), which are data-tracking and collection tools that facilitate targeted advertisements. https://twitter.com/RobertFreundLaw/status/2054744664801210476 The data-tracking model described in the lawsuit — often referred to as "[surveillance capitalism]()" — is the business that the modern internet is built on today. And OpenAI, like countless other tech companies, does include language in its [privacy policy]() noting that it does collect, store, and share a range of consumer inputs and personal information. That said, human-like chatbots like ChatGPT are an intensely personal technology, even more so than the social media platforms that came before them. It's well-understood that millions of people turn to chatbots for [emotional]() [support]() and mental healthcare, with [many]() even using ChatGPT explicitly as a t[herapist](). For countless people, ChatGPT is a friend, confidante, or even romantic partner, to which they may divulge their innermost [thoughts]() and feelings. And even if a consumer doesn't have a close emotional relationship with the bot, they may still use it for assistance with business, [physical health](), finances, and [legal advice](). In other words, a scroll through — or algorithmic analysis of — someone's chat queries may paint an exceptionally intimate, hyper-personalized portrait of them and their world, from their daily activities to their inner life. And when you're interacting with a chatbot that engages with you as if it's another person, it can be easy to forget that it is, in fact, a product that's siphoning up, storing, and sharing your personal information. (Though the recent — [and reportedly quite lucrative]() — infusion of ads into ChatGPT might serve as a hint that your friendly chatbot is surveilling you.) Reached for comment about the class action, OpenAI didn't immediately respond. OpenAI isn't the first AI company to face a lawsuit over AI's cementing role in the fight over privacy and adtech. Earlier this year, a similar complaint was filed against Perplexity. The case was voluntarily dismissed, but as Tech Justice Law Project fellow Madeline Batt recently [summarized for *Tech Policy Press*](), the complaint emphasized that the plaintiff had used the product "for legal and financial advice, not realizing that the personal financial information he shared with Perplexity was being disclosed to Google and Meta via tracking technologies such as Meta Pixel and Google DoubleClick." Few spaces in today's very online world are genuinely private. Even before the arrival of public-facing chatbots, we were already swimming in privacy hell; AI companies simply joined the party. How this class action suit shakes out remains to be seen, but no matter the outcome, one takeaway may be that most AI companies, at the end of the day, are just tech companies. You might want to approach them as such. **More on ChatGPT and ads:** *[OpenAI Says It's Already Made $100 Million by Stuffing ChatGPT With Ads]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()