Chat at your own risk Data brokers are selling deeply personal bot transcripts (www.theregister.com)

Data brokers are reportedly selling sensitive transcripts from AI chatbot interactions, raising significant privacy concerns within the AI/ML community. Despite claims of anonymization and consent, these brokers capture personal data—such as health details and legal inquiries—via browser extensions that intercept user communications. Reports indicate that many users unknowingly install these extensions, which can compromise their private conversations with AI services like ChatGPT and Gemini by using methods to capture every interaction verbatim. The implications are dire: conversations related to topics like mental health, immigration, and medical conditions are being stored in searchable databases, exposing vulnerable users to potential re-identification. This practice not only risks breaching confidentiality agreements, especially in healthcare, but also highlights the increasing need for more robust regulations in how AI interactions and data privacy are managed. As users may inadvertently share sensitive information, the report underscores an urgent need for awareness around the risks associated with using seemingly benign browser extensions, emphasizing that even pseudonymized data can pose significant privacy threats in the hands of data brokers.