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13.6: Don't trust AI with sensitive information; check the privacy policy

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    When you ask a chatbot a question, who can read that question? Where does that text go besides your screen? What if you give the chatbot a draft of an essay that has some personal stories in it that you are fine sharing with your teacher but might not want published online? Maybe you ask a chatbot for advice on how to manage your job responsibilities and course load given your family situation. Or what if you tell it about your past experience and ask it to draft a resume? Could the AI company use that information to train its future chatbots, and could those chatbots share the information with anyone who asks about you?

    To get things done online, we are constantly sharing text and images. How many of us know exactly what can happen with that data and have made conscious decisions about what to share and not share in every instance? That’s a tall order. I have certainly clicked through terms of service agreements without reading them as closely as I should.

    Encouraged by teacher Autumm Caines, though, I have started to do a bit more due diligence. I’ve found it usually takes less than a minute to skim the privacy policy for an AI system. Let’s take ChatGPT as an example and look at OpenAI’s policy. Here’s an excerpt:

    Screenshot of an excerpt from the OpenAI Privacy Policy. "2. How we use personal informationWe may use Personal Information for the following purposes:To provide, administer, maintain and/or analyze the Services;To improve our Services and conduct research;"
    Screenshot of an excerpt from the OpenAI Privacy Policy dated July 3, 2025.

    That’s close to a blank check. They can use our data for anything they consider “research.”

    In ChatGPT’s settings, you’ll see a “Data Controls” section where you can ask them not to train future chatbots on your prompts (“Improve the model for everyone” is automatically enabled). Will they honor their pledge? If they do use our data when we’ve opted out, will they be held accountable? And even if they don’t intend to use our data, will they keep it safe in this era of data breaches?

    Alternatives

    If we’re not happy with a particular privacy policy or we don’t trust a company, we can look for an alternative AI system with a different policy or reputation. Apps that are built on top of the major AI text generation systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude can have their own additional data protection. Some colleges and universities may offer local versions of AI apps that their IT departments have vetted..

    We can also build a habit of pausing before we share something with a chatbot and asking ourselves, “How would I feel if this became public?”

    In A Blueprint For An AI Bill Of Rights For Education, Kathryn Conrad argues that students “should be able to opt out of assignments that may put your own creative work at risk for data surveillance and use without compensation.” I would agree: if your teacher is asking you to use AI, they should provide a privacy-and-data rights-protected way for you to do so or allow you to do an alternate assignment.

    Can we have any impact on how our data is protected beyond our individual choices about what to share? As of 2024, federal legislation in the U.S. to protect data privacy is under consideration, modeled in part on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In a collaborative, civic approach to privacy, we discuss and shape how data is handled through democratic processes.

    Questions

    This page titled 13.6: Don't trust AI with sensitive information; check the privacy policy is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Anna Mills (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative) .