ChatGPT owner forced to apologize for major privacy issue that could affect millions

Some users reported a 'significant issue' with their ChatGPT account. They were able to see the titles of other people's conversations with the chatbot, which is considered as a privacy violation.

As PC Magazine reports, it took a few days for Sam Altman, the owner of ChatGPT, to address the privacy issue. After several days, during which users tried reaching out to the founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman has opened up about the bug on his Twitter account.

As a result of the fix, some users were not able to access their chat history from 1am to 10 am on Monday, 20 March. Today, Thursday, 23 March, the history sidebar remains inaccessible.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a chatbot, which has seen incredible growth in the last year, due to its infinite possibilities. People can use the AI chatbot to generate original poems, screenplays, novels, or even dissertations. Even the writer of one of America's number one shows is reportedly using ChatGPT as inspiration for season 3 of Euphoria.

Read more:Google issues urgent warning to millions of users on ChatGPT

What is the problem?

It depends on what you wrote on ChatGPT. If a user entered personal information in their request to the chatbot, which ended up in the title of the conversation, then this person's information could end up on someone else's account, and eventually in the wrong hands.

However, the OpenAI system apparently only loads generic terms in conversation titles, therefore protecting users' personal information. In any case, the person's identity should be unclear and you should not be able to find out exactly who these conversations belong to.

Every cloud has a silver lining: other users' could only other people's conversation titles and not their content. If you clicked on someone else's conversation title, the chatbot would not load the details.

Read more:Gmail warning issued to billions over storage: 'All of your emails may be deleted'

A one-time bug?

Some ChatGPT users have asked the owner of the platform to explain the bug and reveal how many people were affected by the privacy breach. This bug could question which companies choose to use the OpenAI system and whether it can trusted to hold personal information.

For some users, an apology is not enough from the owner of ChatGPT, as a privacy breach is a serious issue and could affect the personal lives of users.

Read more:Google issues warning over dangerous apps: 'Turn off' this setting in your account to stay safe

Sources used:

PCMag: ChatGPT Users Report Seeing Other People's Conversation Histories

Reuters: ChatGPT-owner OpenAI fixes 'significant issue' exposing user chat titles

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