OpenAI Faces Class Action Alleging ChatGPT Secretly Disclosed Sensitive User Conversations to Meta and Google
A California woman filed the proposed class action against OpenAI on behalf of users. The central question is whether ChatGPT transmitted conversation data without users’ knowledge through embedded Meta and Google tracking tools on its webpages. Because the content may include highly sensitive health and financial consultations, the case is seen as the first major lawsuit to directly challenge an AI chatbot’s data-handling and informed-consent obligations.
As of July 20, 2026, the plaintiff alleged that OpenAI allowed the tracking tools to access and transmit content entered by ChatGPT users without authorization, with Meta and Google among the recipients. The lawsuit claims OpenAI could face more than $5 million in damages. However, the available information does not provide the filing date, court docket number or a formal response from OpenAI, and the allegations remain subject to judicial review.
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The history behind this eventFlorida Sues OpenAI Over Risks to Minors’ Safety
OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022. Its terms require users to be at least 13 and those under 18 to obtain parental consent, but Florida alleges that the free version relies solely on self-reported birth dates and lacks effective age verification and parental oversight. As generative AI has rapidly become part of teenagers’ lives, concerns about self-harm, violence and addiction have moved beyond product governance to become the subject of the first U.S. state enforcement case of its kind.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed an 83-page civil lawsuit containing 10 causes of action against five OpenAI entities and CEO Sam Altman in the Tenth Judicial Circuit Court in Highlands County on June 1, 2026. The state is seeking an end to alleged deceptive practices and a ban on collecting data from children under 13 without parental consent. Each willful violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, or FDUTPA, carries a maximum penalty of $10,000. Florida is seeking more than $50,000 in total damages, as well as treble and punitive damages.
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