Shared ChatGPT chats indexed on Google; OpenAI pulls feature after privacy concerns
The issue stemmed from ChatGPT’s share feature, which allowed users to create public links to their conversations.;
CHENNAI: A privacy lapse involving ChatGPT has raised alarm among users after personal conversations shared through the AI platform were found indexed on Google search.
The issue stemmed from ChatGPT’s share feature, which allowed users to create public links to their conversations.
While only chats manually shared by users were affected, many were unaware that these shared links could be discovered by search engines like Google and Bing.
As a result, conversations covering personal matters, from relationship troubles to job advice were briefly accessible to anyone searching online.
The matter came to light following a TechCrunch report, which revealed that hundreds of such shared conversations were visible through targeted searches.
In response, OpenAI confirmed that the indexing was part of a short-lived experiment to test discoverability.
We just removed a feature from @ChatGPTapp that allowed users to make their conversations discoverable by search engines, such as Google. This was a short-lived experiment to help people discover useful conversations. This feature required users to opt-in, first by picking a chat… pic.twitter.com/mGI3lF05Ua
— DANΞ (@cryps1s) July 31, 2025