Nearly 100,000 ChatGPT Conversations Were Searchable on Google (404media.co) 13
An anonymous reader shares a report: A researcher has scraped nearly 100,000 conversations from ChatGPT that users had set to share publicly and Google then indexed, creating a snapshot of all the sorts of things people are using OpenAI's chatbot for, and inadvertently exposing. 404 Media's testing has found the dataset includes everything from the sensitive to the benign: alleged texts of non-disclosure agreements, discussions of confidential contracts, people trying to use ChatGPT to understand their relationship issues, and lots of people asking ChatGPT to write LinkedIn posts.
The news follows a July 30 Fast Company article which reported "thousands" of shared ChatGPT chats were appearing in Google search results. People have since dug through some of the chats indexed by Google. The around 100,000 conversation dataset provides a better sense of the scale of the problem, and highlights some of the potential privacy risks in using any sharing features of AI tools. OpenAI did not dispute the figure of around 100,000 indexed chats when contacted for comment.
The news follows a July 30 Fast Company article which reported "thousands" of shared ChatGPT chats were appearing in Google search results. People have since dug through some of the chats indexed by Google. The around 100,000 conversation dataset provides a better sense of the scale of the problem, and highlights some of the potential privacy risks in using any sharing features of AI tools. OpenAI did not dispute the figure of around 100,000 indexed chats when contacted for comment.
I'm unclear on what the issue is (Score:2)
"set to share publicly" means "will be indexed and searchable". Is the issue that this is an obscure but default setting?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
It is truly shocking that something users requested be shared publicly on the internet was shared publicly on the internet.
Re: (Score:3)
OpenAI originally stated that the links would not be searchable by search engines. The share button was supposed to give you a link that you could give specifically to whomever you wanted to share with, with at least a needle-in-a-haystack's level of privacy.
Re: (Score:2)
It was a checkbox in the "share via link" dialog that was not checked by default. So not obscure and not a default. In the end you first need to click share, then you need to click the checkbox and then you need to click create link.
I don't think there is a gallery of public chats, so you also needed to share the link in some place where search engines find it before it got indexed.
Joe-6-pack (Score:2)
Is the issue that this is an obscure but default setting?
That, and:
- the fact that the general public doesn't understand the implications of having stuff left on "shareable"
- in general settings that affect privacy should be "opt-in", not "opt-out", because not every single person online will be attentive to the thousand of tiny settings hidden behind dark patterns that needs to be flipped so their privacy isn't utterly violated.
The UE could step in for the point 2 above.
Reporting on such unintentional leaks could help raise awareness of point 1 above.
If you care about privacy and you use AI (Score:3)
you're crazy.
Remember this: all AI knows comes from stolen data. Why would you interactions with it be treated any differently?
Who cares? (Score:3)
Nothing in an Eliza bot chat is worth reading.
What's the fuss about exactly? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That was not inadvertent (Score:2)
Inadvertent? I do not think you know what that word means.
A researcher has scraped nearly 100,000 conversations from ChatGPT that users had set to share publicly and Google then indexed, creating a snapshot of all the sorts of things people are using OpenAI's chatbot for, and inadvertently exposing.
USERS SET THEM TO SHARE PUBLICLY
THAT IS NOT INADVERTENT
IT IS A CHOICE
TL;DR: GFY clickbait clowns
Dupe (Score:2)
And it was also a feature not a bug.
People set a checkmark "Allow search engines to find this conversation" and search engines found the conversation. *surprised pikachu face*