Following publication of a story that PCMag published, OpenAI removed all chats from Google search results, along with the checkbox in ChatGPT that enabled users to make them discoverable.
As PCMag initially reported on July 31, chatbot users seemed to be unintentionally making their private ChatGPT conversations publicly available in search results on sites like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. All anyone had to do to view a trove of others’ conversations, was to add site:chatgpt.com/share to search queries.
As Fast Company first reported, there were seemingly endless pages of personal, private chats, all of which had one thing in common: people “shared” them by pressing a button in ChatGPT that created a link to that specific conversation.
The feature, which rolled out in May 2023, was pitched as a “new way for users to share their ChatGPT conversations, replacing the old and burdensome method of sharing screenshots.” Those with shared links could also continue the conversation. Shared links did not include the person’s name or account details. But if someone included a specific phrase or name in the chat, it was easily identifiable and searchable.
But after the story’s publication, now, when you search site:chatgpt.com/share on Google, there are no longer any results.
As of Friday, the chats were still appearing in other search engines, such as Bing and DuckDuckGo, since the feature is still “rolling out to all users,” says OpenAI CISO Dan Stuckey. “Ultimately, we think this feature introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they didn’t intend to, so we’re removing the option,” Stuckey says. “We’re also working to remove indexed content from the relevant search engines.”
An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to PCMag that it was an “experiment” that has now ended.
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