ChatGPT has a feature that allows users to create a URL of their conversation with the chatbot and share it with friends or colleagues. As per a report, some of these shared conversations were discoverable when running a query on search engines such as Google Search, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. To see these conversations, one reportedly needs to filter the search results to a specific ChatGPT domain. OpenAI said that this was part of an experimental feature, which has now been disabled.
Private ChatGPT Conversations Reportedly Indexed by Search Engines
First spotted by Fast Company, it appears that if someone runs a search query with the domain filter “site:chatgpt.com/share” followed by any text, it shows a list of links to various conversations users have had with the chatbot. During an investigation, the publication was able to surface more than 4,500 chats, although the actual number of discoverable conversations might be much higher.
Most of the conversations reportedly do not include personal details or information that can be used to identify individuals. However, others were said to divulge users’ names, locations, and personal details. TechCrunch was able to surface a conversation where a user wanted ChatGPT to rewrite their resume for a specific job application. The publication was able to find the person’s LinkedIn account based on the information shared.
OpenAI’s Chief Information Security Officer, Dane Stuckey, addressed the issue in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter). The executive said that this happened due to an experimental feature designed to help people discover useful conversations. Available to a subset of ChatGPT users, the feature required users to create a link to their conversation and then opt in to share it publicly. The feature has now been disabled. The CISO also shared an image of this interface.
The experimental feature’s interface and the opt-in check box
Photo Credit: X/@cryps1s (Dane Stuckey)
Stuckey added that security and privacy are important for OpenAI, and recognising that this feature “introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they didn’t intend to,” it was ultimately being removed. Additionally, the executive claimed that OpenAI is working to remove the already-indexed content from relevant search engines. Notably, at the time of writing this, Gadgets 360 staff members were not able to surface any such conversations.
