ChatGPT Personal Chats Leaked On Google: How It Happened, OpenAI CEO Responds, And What Users Should Do
Whether it was a messy fight with your girlfriend, late night overthinking, weird 2 AM thoughts, embarrassing kitchen mishaps, career planning, or simply searching for happiness, you shared it all with an AI that patiently listened to your problems and offered advice. Most importantly, this AI never judged you. It felt more like a close friend, like confiding in a diary that actually talks back.
Now, imagine if ChatGPT exposed users' personal conversations on Google and made them available for the world to read. Chats about your problems, wild thoughts, mental health struggles, relationship advice, and even someone asking how to write a punch line to impress a girl. Sounds wild, but that is exactly what happened.
In a surprising incident, thousands of private ChatGPT conversations showed up in Google search results. Some of these chats included personal topics like mental health, job stress, and relationship issues shared with the AI chatbot.
ChatGPT Leak Data: How Did This Happen?
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, had a feature that let users share their chats using a share button. When someone clicked it and chose 'create link,' ChatGPT made a URL that could be shared with others.
There was also an option called 'Make this chat discoverable.' If this was turned on, search engines like Google could show those chat links in public search results. Many users didn't understand this and turned it on by mistake, thinking it was needed to share chats with friends, without realizing it could make their chats public.
The issue was first reported by Fast Company. They found that around 4,500 ChatGPT links had been indexed by Google. While many of these chats were harmless, some revealed deeply personal and sensitive details shared by users—things they never expected the world to see.
ChatGPT Leak Data: What Open AI Responded
OpenAI fixed the privacy issue by removing the "discoverable" option from the Share window. An OpenAI employee said it was a short lived experiment that made it too easy to share chats by mistake. Now, OpenAI's FAQ clearly says that shared chats are not public unless users choose to make them discoverable.
ChatGPT Leak Data: What Users Should Do
Step 1: Open ChatGPT and go to Settings.
Step 2: Tap on Data Controls from the menu.
Step 3: Click on Manage next to the Shared Links option.
Step 4: You will now see a list of all shared chats. From here, you can delete any links you no longer want to keep public.
No Legal Privacy For ChatGPT Users
Adding further, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that users should not expect legal privacy when using ChatGPT. Since there are no clear laws or rules about AI chats yet. However, if a legal case ever comes up, OpenAI could be required to hand over some of your most sensitive chats.
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