Third-Party Advertising Data Sharing

What it is

Perplexity may share your data with advertising companies to show you targeted ads and track whether those ads worked.

Why it matters (compliance & governance perspective)

Sharing data with advertising networks means your usage patterns and potentially your query behavior could inform targeted advertising across the internet, not just within Perplexity.

Consumer impact (what this means for users)

This provision means that data about how you use Perplexity, including potentially what topics you search for, may be shared with advertising partners and used to build a profile for ad targeting purposes.

What you can do

Institutional analysis (Compliance & governance intelligence)

(1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: This provision directly engages CCPA and CPRA, under which sharing personal information with advertising networks for cross-context behavioral advertising constitutes a sale or share of personal information, triggering opt-out rights. GDPR requires a valid legal basis and, for behavioral advertising, typically explicit consent. The FTC has scrutinized data broker and advertising ecosystem practices under the FTC Act. (2) GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Medium. Advertising data sharing is common across consumer-facing digital services, but the combination of AI search query content with advertising targeting creates a more sensitive data profile than typical web browsing behavior, particularly if query topics are used as interest signals. (3) JURISDICTION FLAGS: California residents have an explicit right to opt out of sale or sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising under CPRA. EU and UK users have strong consent requirements for behavioral advertising under GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive. Colorado, Virginia, Connecticut, and other US states with comprehensive privacy laws also provide opt-out rights for targeted advertising. (4) CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Businesses deploying Perplexity for employee use should assess whether employee query data flowing to advertising networks creates obligations under applicable employment or data protection law. Advertising partner identity and subprocessor lists should be reviewed during vendor due diligence. (5) COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Opt-out mechanisms for advertising data sharing should be assessed for accessibility and effectiveness. Privacy notices should clearly distinguish between service-necessary data sharing and advertising-related sharing to meet transparency standards under GDPR and CCPA.

Applicable agencies

Applicable regulations

Provision details

Other risks in this policy

• AI Model Training Use of User Data high
• Corporate Transaction Data Transfer medium
• California Resident Rights (CCPA/CPRA) medium
• Children's Privacy Restriction medium
• Cookies and Tracking Technologies medium
• Data Retention medium

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