In a recent LifeHacker article, Emily Long advises users’ conversations with AI chatbots should not include private, confidential information, because AI chat conversations are not private.
Researchers at Stanford reviewed the privacy policies of the six U.S. companies that developed the most popular AI chatbots, including Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT, and found that all of them use chat data by default for training purposes. Some retain said data indefinitely, and most merge it with other information collected from consumers, such as search queries and purchases. In most cases, you can opt out of having your data used to train LLMs, but chats can also be read by human reviewers, and long-term retention policies increase the risk of your stored information being leaked in a breach.
– Emily Long, LifeHacker
Below are Emily Long’s suggested lists that should never be share with Chatbots:
- Login credentials: Never paste login credentials into a chatbot, and use a password manager or passkey for secure passwords.
- Financial data: AI chatbots are not financial experts and should not be used to share sensitive financial information.
- Medical records: AI chatbots lack medical expertise and should not be used for medical advice.
- Personally identifiable information (PII): AI prompts should not include sensitive personal information like name, address, or financial data.
- General health information: Avoid sharing seemingly benign health information with chatbots, as it could be used for profiling and accessed by insurance companies.
- General health information: AI chatbots are not a substitute for human support in mental health.
- Photos: AI image editing poses risks, including potential misuse of personal photos and metadata exposure. Avoid uploading images of people, especially minors, and consider removing EXIF data before sharing.
- Company documents: AI can expedite work tasks, but exercise caution when uploading sensitive company information to chatbots, as employers may prohibit it.
To sum up, user should exercise caution when sharing information with AI chatbots, assuming all data is stored and potentially accessible to others.
Acknowledgement: This summary was generated using AI writing tools as part of my AI Explorations process. For more information, please refer to the original article listed below.