--- title: "Warning: “AI Girlfriends” Are Hoarding Your Personal Data" description: "Experts at the Mozilla Foundation are warning that AI girlfriends are plagued by concerning privacy pitfalls and murky data use policies." date: "2024-02-16" modified: "2024-02-16" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-girlfriends-personal-data" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "ai companion" - "ai girlfriend" - "the digest" --- # Warning: “AI Girlfriends” Are Hoarding Your Personal Data ![Experts at the Mozilla Foundation are warning that AI girlfriends are plagued by concerning privacy pitfalls and murky data use policies.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Trust Issues Spilling your hopes, [secrets](), and fantasies to your [AI girlfriend]()? You might want to reconsider. In a [new report](), experts at the Mozilla Foundation warn that AI companion bots — [including]() the popular app [Replika]() — are plagued by deeply concerning privacy pitfalls and murky data use policies. "So-called 'AI soulmates' are giving Mozilla the ick when it comes to how much personal information they collect," reads the Mozilla report, "especially given the lack of transparency and user control over how this data is protected from abuse." In other words, bots designed to provide humans with an outlet for intimacy are data-hoarding troves of privacy tripwires — and the companies making them might just be using your very intimate data for their profit. "To be perfectly blunt, AI girlfriends and boyfriends are ***not*** your friends," Mozilla researcher Misha Rykov said in a statement (emphasis his.) "Although they are marketed as something that will enhance your mental health and well-being, they specialize in delivering dependency, loneliness, and toxicity, all while prying as much data as possible from you." Eep! And we thought human-to-human relationships had trust issues. ## Bad Date The researchers' findings are striking, not to mention extremely creepy. Per the report, Mozilla researchers put 11 AI companion bots through their paces, ultimately finding that "ten of the 11 chatbots failed to meet Mozilla's Minimum Security Standards, such as requiring strong passwords or having a way to manage security vulnerabilities." So, not only do the apps fall flat on the security front end, but they also generally fail to give users more power over their privacy preferences. Among other concerns including poor protections against use by minors, the experts also discovered a staggering amount of data trackers across the various apps. These trackers were caught sending users' in-app data to an array of third-party outfits including Facebook, the Google-owned [DoubleClick](), and a range of marketing and advertising firms, with some observed to ship data across Indian and Chinese exchanges. But researchers aren't just worried about outcomes like targeted shopping ads here. Again, companion bots are explicitly designed to build intimate relationships with their users. Given the sensitivity of the information shared, it stands to reason that bad actors could effectively — read: dangerously — exploit it. "One of the scariest things about the AI relationship chatbots is the potential for manipulation of their users," Jen Caltrider, the director of Mozilla's [*\*Privacy Not Included*]() project, said in a statement. "What is to stop bad actors from creating chatbots designed to get to know their soulmates and then using that relationship to manipulate those people to do terrible things, embrace frightening ideologies, or harm themselves or others?" "This is why we desperately need more transparency," Caltrider added, "and user control in these AI apps." **More on AI companions:** [*Experts Say AI Girlfriend Apps Are Training Men to Be Even Worse*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()