Are Your AI Chats Public?
It was recently revealed that xAI's Grok web site made several hundred thousand chats with the Grok chatbot public. How could this be? It turns out Grok has a "share" button that creates a unique URL to give to someone else to view your question-and-answer session. However, Grok made these "share" links publicly accessible on their web site, meaning search engines could find them. Since the links were not restricted (password protected), anyone can use any such link to view the chat...including any prompts and answers. Often chatbot conversations include uploaded images or documents, names, medical records, or other personal information, or even confidential company information. At least one reportedly included a password. Per Forbes, some answers even violated Grok policy on discussion topics like making illegal drugs or creating malware.
Always be careful what you're uploading online. Digital records can be permanent. Even if the company has a tight privacy policy, digital records can also be compromised.
October 2025
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