Be Careful With Meta AI: You Might Accidentally Make Your Chats Public
If you have been active on Meta AI's new dedicated app, you need to be careful. The standalone Meta AI mobile app launched in April, and like Gemini and ChatGPT, it can answer your questions and generate images.
Watch Out for the Discover Tab
The app includes a Discover tab that shows you what others have been up to. The feed on the Discover tab isn't auto-generated. Once the AI chatbot generates a response, a user has to hit Share > Post to publish their interaction on Discover.
Unfortunately, many users have been using this function without understanding its full implications. Tech investor Justine Moore discovered and shared conversations where personal information, such as medical records, tax records, home addresses, and confessions of affairs, were inadvertently made public.
How to Avoid Accidentally Sharing Chats
To prevent your conversations from becoming public, avoid using the Share button at the top right of a chat window. Unlike on other apps, sharing on Meta AI doesn't mean sharing with friends; it goes out to a public feed within the app, similar to the traditional Facebook News Feed.
If you accidentally shared a chat publicly, you can delete it by tapping the three-dot menu at the top right of the post. However, if you have shared multiple chats, you'll need to adjust your privacy settings to make them visible only to you or delete them entirely.
Improvement Needed
Meta AI should provide clearer instructions regarding the Share option to prevent users from inadvertently making their chats public. Enhancements in user interface design and clearer indications of where posts will be published can help mitigate this issue.
When reached for comment, Meta did not immediately respond, but clarified the steps involved in making an AI discussion public.
Business Insider reached out to users who had made their posts public, with limited responses indicating unintentional sharing. Meta AI users are advised to be cautious when utilizing the app's sharing features to protect their privacy.
