Image by Solen Feyissa, from Unsplash
Thousands of ChatGPT Chats Accidentally Made Public
- Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
Thousands of ChatGPT users were shocked to find out that their private chats became publicly visible on Google searches.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- Over 4,000 ChatGPT chats appeared in Google search results.
- Users misunderstood the “Make discoverable” checkbox when sharing chats.
- Chats revealed drug use, trauma, and mental health details.
OpenAI quickly pulled the controversial feature which allowed chats to be indexed by search engines, but the event triggered widespread user privacy concerns.
Fast Company first reported the issue, uncovering more than 4,000 ChatGPT chats accessible via a simple Google search. These conversations exposed personal information, including mental health concerns, drug use, family issues, and trauma. Even though the chats did not display usernames, the included details sometimes made it possible to identify individuals.
The problem stemmed from a small checkbox labeled “Make this chat discoverable” that appeared when users clicked “Share.” Many were confused, and misunderstood this option, as a brief and lightly formatted note at the bottom gave insufficient explanation about the consequences.
ArsTechnica reports that OpenAI’s Chief Information Security Officer Dane Stuckey said on X that only users who opted in had their chats indexed, calling the experiment “short-lived.” Still, he admitted the feature “introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they didn’t intend to.”
AI ethicist Carissa Véliz criticized the practice: “I’m just shocked. That Google is logging in these extremely sensitive conversations is just astonishing,” as reported by Fast Company. She added, “It’s also further confirmation that this company, OpenAI, is not trustworthy, that they don’t take privacy seriously, no matter what they say.”
A Google spokesperson told Ars Technica that indexing depends on what publishers make public: “Neither Google nor any other search engine controls what pages are made public on the web.”
Cybersecurity expert Rachel Tobac warned, “People expect they can use tools like ChatGPT completely privately, but the reality is that many users aren’t fully grasping that these platforms have features that could unintentionally leak their most private questions, stories, and fears,” as reported by Fast Company.
OpenAI has promised to remove exposed chats from search engines and restore user trust.
Image by wocintechchat, from Unsplash
CISA Launches Thorium, A Free Automated Malware Analysis Platform
- Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), together with Sandia National Laboratories, introduced Thorium as a free, powerful malware analysis tool to boost cybersecurity.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- Thorium can analyze over 10 million files per hour with scalable automation.
- Thorium helps teams detect threats faster by integrating multiple malware tools.
- The platform is free and designed for use across federal and private sectors.
Announced on Thursday, Thorium is a scalable, automated platform designed to help cyber defenders quickly examine malware threats and run forensic analyses. It combines commercial, open-source, and custom tools into a single, easy-to-use system that speeds up threat detection and response.
“We’re constantly developing new tools, or acquiring new tools to do this kind of thing, and one of the problems we face is organizing and applying these tools in an effective fashion,” said Mike Compton, deputy section chief of code & media analysis at CISA, as reported by The Record .
“Sandia has helped us identify that and took a crack at helping us develop a solution to make that job easier,” he added.
Thorium automates routine tasks like file gathering, code analysis, and result indexing, which reduces their workload. The system integrates seamlessly into current cybersecurity operations, requiring only basic setup, and has the ability to process millions of files each hour via scalable cloud infrastructure.
“Thorium is not a silver bullet. It’s not going to solve all your problems […] but it is a step forward in establishing a platform that the entire community can use and we can all contribute to,” Compton added, as reported by The Record.
Michael Carson, a cybersecurity engineer at Sandia who led the project, said to The Record that the tool reduces both the time and cost of malware analysis. He adds that this is particularly helpful for organizations that lack in-house cyber defense teams.
According to CISA Associate Director Jermaine Roebuck, the goal was to “empower the broader cybersecurity community to orchestrate the use of advanced tools for malware and forensic analysis.”
The free Thorium platform enables teams to automate essential cyber defense operations while improving their collaborative capabilities between organizations.
