Investigative testing reveals that ChatGPT’s advertising system lets advertisers insert ads into user sessions and target individuals using uploaded emails, phone numbers (raw or hashed), Android advertising IDs, and even the prompts users type. Advertisers can supply “context hints” to match ads to particular conversations, build audiences by uploading large lists, and place ads under text answers and alongside image-generation results. In experiments, ads warning that ChatGPT “isn’t private” were shown to users based on privacy- and AI-related prompt contexts, demonstrating that prompts themselves are used to trigger relevant ads.
The setup has concrete limits and promises: uploaded lists must match at least 25,000 users for inclusion (smaller lists can only exclude), OpenAI says uploaded files are deleted after processing and advertisers cannot see which individuals matched, and users can opt out of ad personalization though ads still appear and can be based on the current chat. Third-party services are already cataloging tens of thousands of ad placements by probing ChatGPT with prompts. The findings highlight privacy risks because prompts can be reviewed by humans and advertisers can share personally identifiable information, prompting calls for stronger data-broker rules and clearer removal processes.
Summary generated by AI from the linked article. hn.today is not affiliated with Hacker News or Y Combinator.
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