ChatGPT Chats Were Indexed Then Removed from Search but Still Remain Online
9 months ago
- #data-exposure
- #privacy
- #OpenAI
- OpenAI introduced a 'Share' button for ChatGPT conversations, which included a 'Make this chat discoverable' checkbox.
- Many users unknowingly made their chats public, leading to over 100,000 ChatGPT chats being indexed by search engines.
- Exposed chats contained sensitive information like resumes, business plans, personal confessions, and API keys.
- OpenAI responded by adding noindex and nofollow tags and requested Google to remove the indexed chats.
- Despite removal from search engines, many chats were archived by the Internet Archive and remain publicly accessible.
- OpenAI has not requested the Internet Archive to remove the archived chats, raising privacy and ownership concerns.
- The incident highlights the need for better user education and friction in sharing sensitive data online.