For many, artificial intelligence was a somewhat theoretical concept until OpenAI introduced ChatGPT. Released at the end of 2022, it needed only five days to surpass one million users. Now, over a billion people around the globe use this chatbot. Undoubtedly, plenty of people registered on openai.com out of pure curiosity. However, the number of people using ChatGPT daily for personal and professional purposes is growing exponentially — and some users might not give much thought to how much data they share with the chatbot. Let’s discuss whether ChatGPT is safe and what you can do to protect your personal information online.
Contents:
What is ChatGPT, and how does it work?
ChatGPT is a chatbot — a form of generative AI that, once provided with a prompt, returns human-like text, images, or videos and even offers conversation. It uses deep learning algorithms, including neural networks, to process user input and generate text responses that are nearly indistinguishable from human language.
Is ChatGPT safe?
Although ChatGPT has multiple built-in security features and is generally considered safe, users might have some privacy concerns while sharing data with the chatbot. Like any other online tool, ChatGPT is not without its own risks, so it’s essential to learn how to mitigate them while using the chatbot for daily tasks and research.
ChatGPT security concerns
Risks associated with ChatGPT’s safety mostly relate to its data retention practices, the content it generates, and misuse by bad actors.
Retention and data leakage
ChatGPT collects user data from prompts, which may include private information, and retains chat histories for at least 30 days. Although data retention helps improve services, it raises concerns about data protection and security.
You can manage how ChatGPT uses your data:
Open ChatGPT settings and select “Data controls” in the sidebar.
Toggle off “Improve the model for everyone.”
This prevents your chats from being used to train the model. However, despite these controls, users can still face the risk of data leaks and breaches. In March 2026, researchers discovered an exploit that could transmit the information users share with the chatbot beyond the platform. Credential breaches are also a risk — using stolen login details, malicious actors can log in to ChatGPT accounts and view their victims’ complete chat history, including any data shared with the AI tool.
Malicious misuse
One of the most common ChatGPT uses is code generation. This artificial intelligence tool can produce large amounts of code in minutes. However, this raises the risk of misusing the chatbot to create malware or generate deliberately faulty code that creates security vulnerabilities. Combined with dark web forums and programming skills, this could be a powerful weapon in the hands of cybercriminals.
Another case of ChatGPT scams is using the chatbot for phishing attacks. The generated text can mimic different writing styles and generate large amounts of unique text that sounds natural and coherent. Criminals can “vibe code” to create copycat websites and imitate the text patterns and visuals used by legitimate platforms. These sophisticated phishing attacks can be harder to identify and might deceive even cautious individuals.
Fake ChatGPT apps
The tale is almost as old as the internet itself — cybercriminals will try to trick people into revealing sensitive data or scam them out of their money by developing an app of their own that copies a legitimate service. ChatGPT is no exception, with fake apps flooding the internet and spreading malware or making people pay for services that OpenAI provides for free.
Although these malicious apps are usually flagged and removed from official stores quickly, some risks remain. For instance, you can come across them in phishing messages that promote ChatGPT and make you download a fake app. If users sign up on such an app and enter their personal information or payment details, they can risk financial or identity theft. If they had a ChatGPT account set up before and enter their usual login details in the fake app’s interface, criminals can access this information and use it to steal the account.
Spreading misinformation
Like other AI tools that use large language models, ChatGPT is trained on vast amounts of data, including books, articles, and websites. The output it generates reflects the opinions of this content’s authors, which can sometimes have strong biases or contain unverified sources. The sources aren’t checked manually due to their large scope, meaning that ChatGPT might generate text containing false or misleading information that perpetuates prejudiced views. In times of “fake news,” it's vital to cross-check all output and its sources — and ChatGPT is no exception.
Prompt injection attacks
A problem that’s arisen with the growing popularity of chatbots like ChatGPT is the use of prompts maliciously crafted to trick the large language model into revealing personal data or bypassing safety guardrails. Bad actors can use prompt injections to extract private data, including personally identifiable information and proprietary content, by prompting the AI language model to repeat specific words indefinitely.
Data poisoning attacks
Data poisoning attacks are designed to directly manipulate the information that large language models use to train chatbots like ChatGPT. Criminals create data with distorted, incorrect, or harmful information and enter it into training datasets used in chatbot development. Data poisoning attacks can impact any user who inputs prompts that draw from the poisoned datasets to generate the answer.
Hallucinations
Many ChatGPT users have observed hallucinations — a phenomenon where, after being asked to refine the same prompt multiple times, the chatbot starts inventing fake sources, statistics, and quotes. This happens because ChatGPT doesn’t actually know specific facts, but only predicts the most probable next word. It fills in the information gaps using invented terms and concepts, leading to inaccurate results with no real data to back them up.
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ChatGPT security measures
OpenAI has implemented several security measures to ensure safety while using ChatGPT and address privacy concerns related to users’ information.
Access control: OpenAI limits access to its models and data to a select group within the organization to prevent breaches or misuse.
Encryption: Communication and data storage related to ChatGPT and other OpenAI models are encrypted to protect against unauthorized interception or access. However, OpenAI doesn’t use zero access (or end-to-end) encryption, which means that, although data is protected from outside interference, user conversations can be accessed by the OpenAI staff and third-party vendors. In the case of a server breach, such data would be accessible in plaintext.
Monitoring and logging: OpenAI monitors ChatGPT usage and responds to any unusual or unauthorized activity.
Regular audits and assessments: The creators of ChatGPT conduct regular security audits and assessments to identify and address vulnerabilities, including internal and external reviews, to ensure a comprehensive evaluation.
Collaboration with security researchers: OpenAI works with the broader security research community, encouraging responsible disclosure of identified vulnerabilities.
User authentication: Users interacting with ChatGPT are required to authenticate their identities when they sign up for the service.
Compliance with regulations: OpenAI complies with relevant data protection and privacy regulations that ensure appropriate and secure information handling, including the EU AI Act and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and is prepared for upcoming US state-level regulations, like the California and Colorado AI Acts. Details and the company’s policies can be found on trust.openai.com.
Addressing bias: Bias in AI models can emerge from the data they are trained with and can reflect and perpetuate existing societal biases. OpenAI claims to train ChatGPT on diverse datasets that represent a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds. It also develops bias mitigation methods to identify and reduce biases in the chatbot’s answers.
How to use ChatGPT safely
ChatGPT’s security still raises some questions, and it’s not bulletproof. Its massive database and user pool make it a highly lucrative target for cybercriminals who aim to breach the servers or steal user accounts. In 2025, the Microsoft Detection and Response Team (DART) reported a backdoor attack that exploited OpenAI accounts. To ensure you can access ChatGPT’s services securely, you can follow a few simple steps.
1. Avoid fake websites and apps
Always interact with ChatGPT via its website chat.openai.com or its official mobile app. The fake applications may harvest your data, steal your financial information by coercing you to pay for functions that are supposed to be free, or even install malware on your device.
2. Secure your account with a strong password
Your account information and chat history are only as safe as your password. It should contain at least 15 characters, including upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. You can use the NordPass Password Generator to create complex and random login credentials and check how secure your current password is.
3. Don’t share personal information or content
You should never share your personal, confidential, or sensitive information, such as passwords or financial details. Interactions with ChatGPT are not private, and OpenAI has stated that it can use your chat history for research and model improvement purposes. Be cautious when discussing personal topics, especially if they can lead to identifying you.
Don’t upload intellectual property, like source codes and confidential designs, legal documents, or healthcare information. You also shouldn’t reveal your authentication details, like crypto wallet keys, two-factor authentication codes, or passwords. To keep this information secure, we recommend using the NordPass password manager, which uses XChaCha20 encryption to protect all user data.
4. Cross-check the information and be aware of bias
ChatGPT reflects the opinions and biases of the datasets it’s been trained with. That's why you should always cross-check the information the chatbot serves you with reliable sources and approach them with a healthy dose of skepticism.
5. Report issues
Provide feedback to OpenAI if you encounter any issues, biases, or inappropriate behavior with ChatGPT. To do that, log in to your account, and use the “Help” button to start a conversation. If you don't have an OpenAI account or can't log in, go to help.openai.com and select the chat bubble icon in the bottom-right corner.