[LINK] ChatGPT users shocked to learn their chats were in Google search results

[Kim Holburn]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/chatgpt-users-shocked-to-learn-their-chats-were-in-google-search-results/



Faced with mounting backlash, OpenAI removed a controversial ChatGPT feature that caused some users to unintentionally allow their 
private—and highly personal—chats to appear in search results.

Fast Company exposed the privacy issue on Wednesday, reporting that thousands of ChatGPT conversations were found in Google search 
results and likely only represented a sample of chats "visible to millions." While the indexing did not include identifying 
information about the ChatGPT users, some of their chats did share personal details—like highly specific descriptions of 
interpersonal relationships with friends and family members—perhaps making it possible to identify them, Fast Company found.

OpenAI's chief information security officer, Dane Stuckey, explained on X that all users whose chats were exposed opted in to 
indexing their chats by clicking a box after choosing to share a chat.

Fast Company noted that users often share chats on WhatsApp or select the option to save a link to visit the chat later. But as Fast 
Company explained, users may have been misled into sharing chats due to how the text was formatted:

"When users clicked 'Share,' they were presented with an option to tick a box labeled 'Make this chat discoverable.' Beneath that, 
in smaller, lighter text, was a caveat explaining that the chat could then appear in search engine results."


At first, OpenAI defended the labeling as "sufficiently clear," Fast Company reported Thursday. But Stuckey confirmed that 
"ultimately," the AI company decided that the feature "introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they 
didn't intend to." According to Fast Company, that included chats about their drug use, sex lives, mental health, and traumatic 
experiences.

Carissa Veliz, an AI ethicist at the University of Oxford, told Fast Company she was "shocked" that Google was logging "these 
extremely sensitive conversations."
OpenAI promises to remove Google search results

Stuckey called the feature a "short-lived experiment" that OpenAI launched "to help people discover useful conversations." He 
confirmed that the decision to remove the feature also included an effort to "remove indexed content from the relevant search 
engine" through Friday morning.

Google did not respond to Fast Company's reporting, which left it unclear what role it played in how chats were displayed in search 
results. But a spokesperson told Ars that OpenAI was fully responsible for the indexing, clarifying that "neither Google nor any 
other search engine controls what pages are made public on the web. Publishers of these pages have full control over whether they 
are indexed by search engines."

OpenAI is seemingly also solely responsible for removing the chats, perhaps most quickly by using a tool that Google provides to 
block pages from appearing in search results. But that tool does not stop pages from being indexed by other search engines, so it's 
possible chats will disappear sooner in Google results than other search engines.

Véliz told Fast Company that even a "short-lived" experiment like this is "troubling," noting that "tech companies use the general 
population as guinea pigs," attracting swarms of users with new AI products and waiting to see what consequences they may face for 
invasive design choices.

"They do something, they try it out on the population, and see if somebody complains," Véliz said.

To check if private chats are still being indexed, a Fast Company explanation suggests that users who still have access to their 
shared links can try inputting the "part of the link created when someone proactively clicks 'Share' on ChatGPT [to] uncover 
conversations" that may still be discoverable on Google.

OpenAI declined Ars' request to comment, but Stuckey's statement suggested that the company knows it has to earn back trust after 
the misstep.

"Security and privacy are paramount for us, and we'll keep working to maximally reflect that in our products and features," Stuckey 
said.

The scandal notably comes after OpenAI vowed to fight a court order that requires it to preserve all deleted chats "indefinitely," 
which worries ChatGPT users who previously felt assured their temporary and deleted chats were not being saved. OpenAI has so far 
lost that fight, and those chats will likely be searchable soon in that lawsuit. But while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman considered the 
possibility that users' most private chats could be searched to be "screwed up," Fast Company noted that Altman did not seem to be 
as transparently critical about the potential for OpenAI's own practices to expose private user chats on Google and other search 
engines.

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
+61 404072753
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request