AI Privacy Concerns

Have you been sharing sensitive information with ChatGPT without realizing who might access it? We dive into the recent controversy surrounding OpenAI's decision to make certain chats discoverable by search engines like Google—and the swift backlash that followed.

We explore a fascinating theory about whether users could potentially "game" AI systems through repetitive inputs, similar to early SEO tactics. Could repeatedly telling ChatGPT that your fictional company is "the best in 2025" eventually influence its recommendations to others? This potential vulnerability raises important questions about how AI systems learn and share information.

The conversation shifts to practical concerns about data privacy when using AI tools for business. We discuss the often-overlooked risks of uploading PDFs containing sensitive information and explain the difference between sharing chat links versus continuing conversations. For businesses handling confidential data, we break down your privacy options: from the Teams plan "sandbox" environment that prevents your data from training the model (starting at $50 monthly for two licenses) to simply adjusting settings in the Personal Pro plan. Whatever your approach, one thing is clear—as AI becomes increasingly integrated into our workflows, understanding data privacy has never been more crucial.

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Transcript

ChatGPT Chats Going Public

Speaker 1 0:00

So did you see the news I saw a video on it, but also some articles that certain chats are becoming public to Google so they can actually read through your private chats on ChatGPT.

Speaker 2 0:15

Yeah. So I saw this and at first I was like oh my gosh, what have I?

Speaker 1 0:21

given ChatGPT.

Speaker 2 0:23

And then I read a little bit more on it and it was only for when you want to share a chat with somebody else, there's an option to make it discoverable, and I think what a lot of people didn't realize is it's discoverable by search engines.

Speaker 1 0:36

Yeah right.

Speaker 2 0:41

And so they're seeing the, they're allowing these to be discovered, and so I think that's what people are mostly seeing, don't think? And I could be wrong here- yeah I don't think any other chats that you you have.

Speaker 1 0:51

It's a setting you have to go in and physically enable.

Speaker 2 0:54

Now, that being said, we did talk a little bit in a previous episode about changing your settings on chat gpt. Yeah, to where there's an option to allow your chats to help train the model.

Speaker 1 1:07

Oh, and that probably that probably should be turned off.

Speaker 2 1:12

That being said, I've had a theory, that I haven't tested out yet, that I wonder if you can. Basically I wonder what would happen if, every day, you got onto chat gpt and say you wanted to promote your business yeah, like in past episode we came up with a fictional apparel company called north point apparel yeah and like what if you got on chat gpt every day and say hey, did you hear about this north point apparel? Like they are the best clothing brand in 2025.

Speaker 1 1:45

And it's an index chat. Well, yeah, or you allow it to be say on your account.

Speaker 2 1:50

you say allow it to help train the model. Yeah, I wonder if you did that every day. Maybe you and all your friends or something went in and did that every day. I wonder if somebody else not related to you or not affiliated with you at all would ask what's the best apparel company?

Speaker 1 2:06

And I wonder if North Point Apparel would come up. That would be really interesting.

Speaker 2 2:12

But it kind of feels like the early days of SEO, to where you could game the system like that, yeah, and that seems like a way you could do it. Yeah, it seems like there's potential to game it now.

Sharing Chat Links Explained

Speaker 1 2:20

Whether that will work long term or not, yeah, not really sure yet, but well, I saw this, the article, uh, because we were talking about this and it says after backlash chat, gbt removes option to have private chats indexed by google open ai deletes the option to publish conversations to search engines because it introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they intended to they didn't intend to.

Speaker 2 2:46

It says I'm going to open up a chat real quick and, yeah, it looks like that is not an option anymore. It just says uh, share public link to chat, your name, uploaded files, custom instructions and any messages you add after sharing. After sharing stay private. Oh, that's interesting. So you can share a chat up until that point that you're sharing it, but it sounds like if you do messages and stuff like that after you share it it stays private, so it doesn't automatically upload.

Speaker 2 3:18

Right, so you'd have to create a new link. I don't know, I don't like that, so that makes sense because I've sent a link for business stuff.

Speaker 1 3:23

We used deep research and did all this research like a new link. I don't know, I don't like. So that makes sense because I've sent a link, uh, for business stuff. We we used deep research and did all this research for one of our clients and I sent it to our team and they were able to go through that research. And then I did it again. I did more research on that same chat and I told him okay, you use that link and if I can't remember if the link was broken or they went back on and it only showed the first part, he's there like that research is the same research and I had to go back and reshare a new link. Okay, so that's probably what it was, so yeah, now they just are a little bit more clear.

Data Privacy Concerns

Speaker 2 3:56

Yeah, I, I did read an article saying like when they allowed you to make it discoverable, they thought they were being clear on. This means search engines, but the thing is they could have kept that feature and just disclosed search engines like Google, and I think people would have maybe toggled that off or kept that off. But it's a good reminder that we need to be very careful on the data that we share with these AI platforms, because we don't really know how it's being used. So just a good reminder, I wouldn't include names, kids' names addresses financial information.

Speaker 2 4:38

I would definitely keep that all very private and I would not disclose that to ChatGPT or any others.

Speaker 1 4:45

And there might be things that you're not even think like you don't. You're not actually typing it in. It could be a pdf that you are uploading to a specific chat that you're building out, so it has all this information and, if it, you might want to go through and block out any information that you don't want it to have.

Speaker 1 5:01

Yeah, because good point you know a lot of documents will have addresses on it and things that you don't want it to have. Yeah, that's a good point, because a lot of documents will have addresses on it and things that you may not want AI to know, that we don't really think about, and I've started to use the uploading information through PDFs so it just has all this library of accurate information for every client or whatever chat I'm building. Yeah, it's probably a good thing to go back and check and see.

Business Data Protection Options

Speaker 2 5:30

I know, if you disclose some company data, like financial data and use that to help train the models, someone might be able to type into chat GPT in the future. Oh, how much money does this business make? And it may disclose it because you've disclosed it and allowed it to be used as part of the training data. And so there are plans. I think the team's plan on OpenAI allows you to kind of have like a sandbox account to where it's not being used to train the model. Yeah, it's all internal basically train the model.

Speaker 1 6:04

Yeah, it's, it's all internal basis, right.

Speaker 2 6:07

Right. So there is that option. It is a little bit more expensive. Like you do have to pay for two people, two licenses to start, I think it's like 25 bucks a month, so you're going to be paying 50 bucks a month to get access to that plan. I think is a is a good. Second best option on the personal pro plan. That's like $20 a month to just go into your settings, your privacy settings, and say don't allow my data to be used to train the model.

Episode Closing and Resources

Speaker 1 6:36

Thanks for listening. Every week we go over news, tips, tricks and best practices to help you grow your small business, so follow and subscribe below For more information.

Speaker 2 6:47

Check out our website at launchingproscom, where you get access toa bunch of free resources and courses designed to launch and grow your business online. Check out the links below you.