--- title: "OpenAI Denies Report That ChatGPT Leaked User Passwords" description: "It looks like ChatGPT may be spewing out user data to unrelated parties — and it's far from the first time." date: "2024-01-30" modified: "2024-01-30" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/chatgpt-accused-leaking-passwords" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "chatgpt" - "data leaks" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # OpenAI Denies Report That ChatGPT Leaked User Passwords ![It looks like ChatGPT may be spewing out user data to unrelated parties — and it's far from the first time.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Ticket Taker As [*Ars Technica* reports](), a user is claiming that OpenAI's ChatGPT is revealing private and unrelated user conversations, including pharmacy user tickets and bits of code that show identifying login credentials for numerous websites. The reader, Chase Whiteside, explained to *Ars* that they'd been using ChatGPT to come up with "clever names for colors in a palette" and, apparently, clicked away from the screen. When they reopened it, there were more conversations on the left side of the page than had initially been there, none of which they'd initiated themselves. But OpenAI is pushing back. "Ars Technica published before our fraud and security teams were able to finish their investigation, and their reporting is unfortunately inaccurate," a spokesperson told us in response to questions about *Ars*' reporting. "Based on our findings, the users’ account login credentials were compromised and a bad actor then used the account. The chat history and files being displayed are conversations from misuse of this account, and was not a case of ChatGPT showing another users’ history." ![]() ## Leaked and Loaded Of the conversations the reader screenshotted and sent to *Ars*, including a presentation-building exchange and some PHP code, one seemed to contain troubleshooting tickets from the aforementioned pharmacy portal. Stranger still, the text of the apparent tickets indicated that they'd been initiated in the years 2020 and 2021, before ChatGPT was even launched. The website didn't explain the incongruent dates, but there's a non-zero chance it could have been part of its training data. Indeed, last year, ChatGPT maker OpenAI was hit with a [massive class-action lawsuit]() alleging that the company secretly [used troves of medical data]() and other personal information to train its large language models (LLMs). In its less than 18-month history, ChatGPT has on multiple occasions been accused of being a leaky faucet. In March 2023, [OpenAI was forced to admit]() that a glitch had caused the chatbot to show some users each others' conversations, and in December, the company [rolled out a patch]() to fix another issue that could expose user data to unauthorized third parties. And around the end of 2023, [Google researchers found]() that by using certain "attack" prompts, or keywords that cause the chatbot to do what it's not supposed to do, ChatGPT would reveal massive swaths of its training data. If nothing else, however, it does remind us of the old operations security adage: don't put anything into ChatGPT, or any other program, that you wouldn't want a stranger to see. *Updated with comment from OpenAI.* **More on OpenAI:** [*OpenAI Issues Patch to Fix GPT-4's Alleged Laziness*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()