Importance Score: 85 / 100 🟢
Safeguarding Your Privacy: Essential Information to Avoid Sharing with AI Chatbots Like ChatGPT
Individuals are increasingly utilizing AI chatbots such as ChatGPT for diverse purposes, ranging from seeking relationship advice and drafting professional correspondence to creative activities like transforming pet images. This widespread adoption involves entrusting these artificial intelligence platforms with a significant volume of personal data. However, experts advise caution regarding the type of information disclosed, emphasizing that certain sensitive details should never be shared with these conversational AI systems to maintain your privacy and security.
Understanding Data Privacy with AI Chatbots
According to Jennifer King, a fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, when you input information into a chatbot, you relinquish control over that data, as stated in a Wall Street Journal interview. Both OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, and Google, the creator of Gemini, explicitly warn users against sharing confidential or sensitive information. OpenAI’s website advises users against sharing sensitive details, while Google cautions Gemini users to avoid entering personal data they would not want a reviewer to access.
Building on these warnings, here are five critical categories of information that should never be disclosed to ChatGPT or any similar AI chatbot.
Critical Information to Keep Private from AI Chatbots
Personal Identification Details
Social Security Numbers, Addresses, and More
It is imperative to avoid revealing any personally identifying information to ChatGPT or similar platforms. This includes sensitive data such as your Social Security number, driver’s license and passport numbers, birth date, home address, physical address, and telephone numbers. While some chatbots are designed to redact such details, it is a safer practice to refrain from sharing this information altogether.
According to an OpenAI spokesperson in a statement to the WSJ, their AI models are intended to learn about the world in general, not individual private lives. They actively minimize the collection of personal information.
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Medical and Health Records
Confidential Health Information
The healthcare sector places a high value on patient confidentiality to protect personal information and prevent discrimination. However, AI chatbots generally do not fall under these strict confidentiality protections. If you need to use ChatGPT to interpret lab results or other medical documents, experts recommend redacting or cropping the document to show only the test results, thus protecting your private health information.
Financial Account Information
Banking and Investment Details
Never disclose your bank account numbers or investment account details to an AI chatbot. This type of information is highly vulnerable to unauthorized access and can be exploited to monitor or illicitly access your funds.
Login Credentials and Passwords
Usernames and Passwords
Despite the expanding capabilities of AI chatbots to perform helpful tasks, providing them with your account usernames and passwords poses a significant security risk. These AI systems are not secure password vaults and do not guarantee the safety of your account credentials. It is always recommended to utilize a dedicated password manager for storing and protecting this sensitive login information.
Proprietary Business Data
Confidential Corporate Information and Trade Secrets
Using ChatGPT or similar chatbots for work-related tasks, such as composing emails or editing documents, introduces the potential risk of inadvertently exposing sensitive client information or confidential trade secrets, according to the WSJ. To mitigate these risks, some organizations are adopting enterprise-level AI solutions or developing custom AI programs incorporating specific security measures to protect sensitive corporate data.
Enhancing Privacy While Using AI Chatbots
If you intend to continue using AI chatbots for personal interactions, several measures can enhance your privacy. The WSJ recommends securing your account with a robust password and enabling multi-factor authentication for added protection.
For further privacy, Jason Clinton, Anthropic’s chief information security officer, advised users to delete chat conversations after each session. He noted that while users “delete” data, companies typically permanently remove such data from their systems after a period, often around 30 days.