Third-Party Trackers in Popular AI Assistants Risk User Privacy

Tue, 05 May 2026 20:28:00 +0200

A recent research disclosure highlights significant privacy risks in widely used generative AI platforms, including Perplexity, Anthropic's Claude, xAI's Grok, and OpenAI's ChatGPT. The study found that third-party trackers, such as Meta Pixel, Google Analytics, and TikTok trackers, are embedded in these AI services and can potentially access conversation URLs, titles, and sensitive metadata. Some platforms, like Grok, make conversation permalinks publicly accessible by default, allowing anyone with the link to view full conversations. These URLs, when sent to trackers, can link conversations to user identities via cookies and email hashes, creating privacy vulnerabilities. Despite available privacy controls and cookie consent mechanisms, some tracking occurs regardless of user preferences. The research emphasizes that while there is no evidence that trackers actively read conversations, the infrastructure allows it, posing a systemic privacy risk. Users often share personal or sensiti