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OpenAI is willing to target free users who have ads online, based on what it knows about them.
Thursday, OpenAI sent an email to users and posted major changes to the US AI company’s privacy policy. “We will now use cookies to improve OpenAI’s products and services on other websites,” said an email sent on April 30. “This does not affect your conversations in ChatGPT. Your conversations with ChatGPT are private and are not shared with our marketing partners.” Cookies save more in the user’s browser while browsing the Internet.
Chats with the bot are not shared with others. However, the information that OpenAI collects when users interact with its services may be used to advertise the same, such as ChatGPToutside the tower. This appears to be focused on converting free users (WIRED found that commercial updates were “on” by default) and seeing how well its ads perform on conversions.
The move comes in the form of OpenAI expanding its marketing network within ChatGPT. The company started issuing advertisements under the ChatGPT release for US users in February. Competitors including Google are look at the ads It can be integrated into the user’s actions with artificial intelligence tools and features.
“Nothing about our policy on non-compliance with public communications or other privacy issues with advertisers has changed,” said OpenAI spokeswoman Taya Christianson. “Like many companies, OpenAI works with third-party advertisers to help people find out about our products on other websites and apps, and we’ve updated our privacy policy to clarify how this works. We don’t share our communications with these advertisers. To keep OpenAI’s products relevant and to measure its effectiveness, we may share small identifiers, such as cookie or user IDs on any device, and device settings.”
To help you understand the latest changes, WIRED compared the new privacy policy to the old version that was posted on OpenAI’s website earlier this month. A major change relates to how your data is shared for marketing purposes.
Courtesy of Reece Rogers
Data Usage Now Including Third-Party Upgrades
In the Disclosure of Personal Data section, OpenAI expanded this section to explain how it discloses personal information. OpenAI now says it may share “limited information” with partners to promote services such as ChatGPT and Codex from OpenAI platforms.
The company explains the change in a new way support page. It says it may send identifying information, such as users’ email addresses or cookie IDs, to advertising platforms. That way, OpenAI can check if users have taken action—like signing up for its Codex tool after being shown an Instagram ad.
Users can exit this mode by going to Settings > Data Management > Business Privacy on the ChatGPT website. WIRED tested two free accounts and found that the changes were automatic. Two paid accounts WIRED checked, one Plus and the other Enterprise, were absent by default.
Ancient Privacy Policy
We disclose your Personal Information for the following reasons:
Vendors and Service Providers: To help us meet business needs and perform certain tasks and services, we disclose Personal Information to vendors and service providers, including service providers, customer service providers, cloud services, delivery services, support and security services, email communication software, online browsing services, payment and exchange, search and shopping, information technology providers. We also work with service providers who support us with age and proven track record, and you can learn more here. Based on our instructions, these parties will access, process, or store Personal Information only in the performance of their duties to us.
New Privacy
We disclose your Personal Information for the following reasons:
Vendors, Service Providers, and Marketing Partners: To help us meet business needs and perform other services and functions, we disclose Personal Information to vendors, service providers, and business partners, including service providers, customer service providers, cloud services, delivery services, support and security, email communications programs, online analytics services, payments and advertising, advertisers and advertisers, advertisers and advertisers and advertisers. We also work with service providers who support us with age and proven track record, and you can learn more here. When we work with Service Providers, these parties collect, process, or store Personal Information at our instructions and in the performance of their duties to us. We also share limited information with selected marketing partners who are not service providers to promote our products and services on other properties and to help us evaluate the performance of those services. Some of these partners may receive information through cookies and similar technologies. Learn more about these systems and the options available to you Here.
Disclaimer About ‘Sensitive Personal Data’ Wrongly Removed
OpenAI categorizes many types of information as “User Information”, including dates of birth, payment information, and any information that the user has entered. In its privacy policy, it doesn’t specify what types of data it considers “sensitive,” but OpenAI promises not to use this information to target consumer behavior.
The provision about “Sensitive Personal Data” was not included in the Privacy Policy summary on Friday when WIRED obtained the document. When WIRED reached out to OpenAI for comment, the company said the removal was incorrect and added a similar statement, in another paragraph.
