For months, extremely personal and sensitive ChatGPT conversations have been leaking into an unexpected destination: Google Search Console (GSC), a tool that developers typically use to monitor search traffic, not lurk private chats.
Normally, when site managers access GSC performance reports, they see queries based on keywords or short phrases that Internet users type into Google to find relevant content. But starting this September, odd queries, sometimes more than 300 characters long, could also be found in GSC. Showing only user inputs, the chats appeared to be from unwitting people prompting a chatbot to help solve relationship or business problems, who likely expected those conversations would remain private.
Jason Packer, owner of an SEO and web development consulting firm called Quantable, was among the first to flag the issue in a detailed blog last month.
Determined to figure out what exactly was causing the leaks, he teamed up with “Internet sleuth” and web optimization consultant Slobodan Manić. Together, they conducted testing that they believe may have surfaced “the first definitive proof that OpenAI directly scrapes Google Search with actual user prompts.” Their investigation seemed to confirm the AI giant was compromising user privacy, in some cases in order to maintain engagement by seizing search data that Google otherwise wouldn’t share.
OpenAI declined Ars’ request to confirm if Packer and Manić’s theory posed in their blog was correct or answer any of their remaining questions that could help users determine the scope of the problem.
However, an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed that the company was “aware” of the issue and has since “resolved” a glitch “that temporarily affected how a small number of search queries were routed.”
Packer told Ars that he’s “very pleased that OpenAI was able to resolve the issue quickly.” But he suggested that OpenAI’s response failed to confirm whether or not OpenAI was scraping Google, and that leaves room for doubt that the issue was completely resolved.