Chatbots such as ChatGPT®, Bing®, Bard®, Perplexity®, Claude®, and more are becoming increasingly popular, but their use raises several privacy concerns.

Key things You Need to Know:

Data collection: Search engines, many websites, apps, and chatbots might record your name, IP address, location, prompts, websites you visit, apps you use, search terms, content downloads, social media activity, and more. Marketing companies call this intent data that provides insight into your interests, needs, and purchase intentions.

Data sharing: As with apps and websites, when users input information into AI tools, it is unclear how it will be used. Privacy policies usually express the right to share information with unidentified third parties. You have no control over how third parties will secure or share your information.

Security breaches: Hacking attacks and inadvertent disclosure of sensitive information could lead to personal details being unwittingly spilled. To minimize the risks, chatbots should forget information or store it anonymously.

Lack of transparency: A big problem is determining the exact data stored and the security risk presented by the chatbots. Their privacy policies are in flux, so read them carefully.

Some chatbots provide the option not to store your prompts and conversations nor use them to train their models. For example https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7730893-data-controls-faq explains Data Controls for ChatGPT.

Protect Your Privacy when using Chatbots:

Provide the minimum necessary information for the chatbot to give you what you need.

Avoid entering sensitive information such as personally identifiable information (PII) such as full names, addresses, birth dates, and usernames.

Substitute fictitious names for people and companies you want to keep private. For instance, if you’re crafting a document for “Company and Sons,” tell the chatbot it’s for the “ACME” company. Once you’ve finished with the chatbot and have your document ready, use your word processor to search for “ACME” and replace it with “Company and Sons.”

The Evolution of Digital Trust:

Many websites and apps gather similar data and raise the same concerns. Most people realize that most search engines capture details for marketing and to provide better search results.

Individuals and companies alike expect file storage services, such as OneDrive® and Dropbox®, to keep the content of files private. Some AI tools like Cody®, Pragma®, and Microsoft Copilot® advertise their intent to keep your private data private.

Privacy for free AI tools may end up somewhere between search engines and file storage services. However, AI tools expecting businesses to adopt them must guarantee total privacy before organizations will trust them with sensitive information.

Conclusion:

Keep privacy in mind as you use the fantastic new AI tools, many of which can save you a tremendous amount of time and allow you to streamline operations and serve your customers better than ever! If you don’t adopt AI, and your competitors do, you’ll find yourself behind and struggling to catch up.

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(Image source: Bing. Learn more at [Bing.com].)