How to Secure Your Secrets from ChatGPT?
Typically, internet users understand certain risks of potential data leakage when operating online and the ways different programs can use our personal information. However, the broad capabilities of ChatGPT seem to have created a blind spot around the dangers we usually take precautions against, reports Mashable.
What could happen, you might ask, if you use ChatGPT at work? It can draft articles, emails, social media posts, and resumes of long text fragments. "There's no example you could think of that wouldn't have been done," said Nader Henein, a vice-president of privacy research at Gartner, who has twenty years of experience in corporate cybersecurity and data protection.
Nevertheless, Henein advises to consider ChatGPT as a friendly stranger who sits behind you on the bus and records you on a phone camera.
Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recognized the risks of relying on ChatGPT. "Mistakenly relying on it for something important right now. We have a lot of work to do on reliability and truthfulness," he wrote on Twitter back at the end of 2022.
So, what does OpenAI tell users about how it uses their data? Not all privacy priorities are equal, but it's important to know the fine print before you next open ChatGPT.
1. Hackers may infiltrate the popular program.
There is always the possibility that someone outside of OpenAI may hack and steal your data. In March 2023, a ChatGPT bug was discovered that revealed titles, first messages of new conversations, and payment information from ChatGPT Plus users.
2. Your conversations are stored somewhere on a server.
Certain OpenAI employees have access to user content. While OpenAI deletes personally identifiable information, until it's "de-identified," it exists on their servers in raw form.
3. Your conversations are used for model training (unless you opt out).
Previously, users could opt out of sharing their data with the model only via a Google form, a link to which is located on the FAQ page. Now, OpenAI has introduced a more explicit way to turn off data sharing in the form of a toggle in your ChatGPT account. But even in this new "anonymous browsing mode," conversations are stored on the OpenAI server for 30 days.
4. The company asserts your data will not be sold to third parties.
OpenAI claims it does not pass on user data to third parties for marketing or advertising purposes, so you have one less thing to worry about. However, it does provide user data to suppliers and service providers for the maintenance and operation of the site.
Recall that when Samsung employees used ChatGPT to test their code, they inadvertently revealed trade secrets. Since then, the electronics manufacturing company has prohibited the use of ChatGPT and threatened employees with disciplinary action if they fail to comply with the new restrictions.
Such financial institutions as JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup have also banned or restricted the use of ChatGPT due to stringent financial regulations concerning third-party message sharing.
Apple also prohibited its employees from using the chatbot. However, just two weeks after launching in the US, the new ChatGPT app was made available by Apple to its users in the App Store in 152 countries and regions, including countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Ukraine included. Developers say that the ChatGPT program synchronizes conversations, supports voice input, and provides a conveniently enhanced model of the program.