Be Aware: Your Friends Could Be Sharing Your Number with ChatGPT
ChatGPT is taking a social turn, introducing a feature that syncs your contacts to see if any of your friends are using the chatbot or any other OpenAI product. While details are scarce, the company hasn't revealed what this feature entails or how it will benefit users. However, they have updated their privacy policy to indicate that contact syncing will help users "find friends."
The policy states that this feature is "completely optional." Yet, even if you don't opt in, anyone with your number who syncs their contacts is giving OpenAI your digits. OpenAI may process your phone number if someone you know has your phone number saved in their device’s address book and chooses to upload their contacts, according to the company's help page (https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001059-information-on-contact-importing-for-people-who-dont-use-openais-services).
If you sync your contacts and OpenAI finds an account with matching numbers, it will suggest you connect to that person. If you choose to follow them, that person may receive a notification with an option to follow back. But why would you follow someone on ChatGPT? Well, it aligns with reports (https://www.theverge.com/openai/648130/openai-social-network-x-competitor) dating back to April, suggesting that OpenAI is building a social network. Since then, we've seen the Sora generative video app (https://au.pcmag.com/ai/161081/brace-yourself-for-a-flood-of-ai-videos-openais-sora-app-launches-on-android), which exists outside of ChatGPT and is more of a novelty. Contact sharing might be the first step toward a much bigger evolution for the world's most popular chatbot.
ChatGPT also supports group chats (https://au.pcmag.com/ai/161257/chatgpt-is-testing-group-conversations-but-you-cant-access-them-yet) that let up to 20 people discuss and research something using the chatbot. Contact syncing could make it easier to invite people to these chats.
OpenAI will regularly check if someone in your contacts has made a new account, so it can try to connect you. The company claims it will not store the full data that might appear in your contact list, such as names or email addresses—just phone numbers. However, the company does store the phone numbers in its servers in a coded (or hashed) format. You can also revoke access in your device's settings.
Additionally, this week, OpenAI began rolling out advertisements inside ChatGPT. Free users can opt out of ads (https://au.pcmag.com/ai/163064/chatgpt-now-shows-you-ads-but-theres-a-free-way-to-avoid-them), though that restricts their messaging rate limits. This comes after rival AI firm Anthropic aired a Super Bowl spot (https://au.pcmag.com/ai/163039/anthropics-super-bowl-ad-was-less-of-a-chatgpt-takedown-than-expected) criticizing OpenAI for its ad plan. CEO Sam Altman fired back (https://au.pcmag.com/ai/162969/anthropic-says-no-ads-on-claude-but-it-will-spend-millions-on-a-super-bowl-spot), calling Anthropic dishonest.
