You thought your ChatGPT conversations were private. A class action found Facebook's tracking pixel and Google Analytics embedded in the chat interface — your questions about health, legal problems, and finances were being routed to the two largest advertising companies on earth. OpenAI said your chats were just between you and the AI. Four Canadian privacy commissioners investigated ChatGPT and found OpenAI scraped health data and children's data without asking anyone. They launched knowing the AI made up facts about real people. When BC and Alberta said "fix it," OpenAI tried to get consent retroactively. The commissioners said no — you can't ask permission after you've already taken everything.
What they claim: OpenAI promotes a culture of safety research and responsible AI development
What we found: Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former OpenAI researcher, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in November 2024. The medical examiner ruled suicide. Balaji had gone public months earlier arguing that ChatGPT's use of copyrighted training data was not fair use, and was a key source for the New York Times' landmark copyright lawsuit against OpenAI. He had recently retained a lawyer. His family disputed the ruling, saying he was not suicidal. He was one of the few insiders willing to speak publicly against OpenAI.
What they claim: OpenAI tells users their ChatGPT conversations are private and used only to improve the service
What we found: A May 2026 class action alleges ChatGPT's web interface embeds Meta's Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics tracking code, routing users' conversation data to Meta and Google without consent. Users asking sensitive questions about health, legal, or financial matters had their queries shared with advertising companies.
What they claim: OpenAI positions ChatGPT as a helpful personal finance tool
What we found: On May 15, 2026, OpenAI launched "Finances in ChatGPT" for Pro subscribers, connecting bank accounts, investment portfolios, and credit cards via Plaid across 12,000+ financial institutions. ChatGPT carries no fiduciary duty. An opt-in toggle allows financial conversations to feed into training data. Launched two days after a class-action lawsuit over data sharing with Meta/Google.
What they claim: Users can delete their data.
What we found: Deleted chats retained 30 days. Training data permanent. Memory persists separately. Court showed OpenAI CAN retain deleted data. EU Memory disabled pending AI Act.
What they claim: OpenAI previously stated it does not sell user data
What we found: In April 2026, OpenAI updated its US privacy policy to formalise advertiser data sharing. Free and Go tier users now have marketing cookies enabled by default. OpenAI receives purchase data from advertisers — Target, Ford, and Adobe among early partners. The ad pilot crossed $100 million in annualised revenue within six weeks. The company that said it wouldn't sell your data is now sharing it with advertisers by default.
What they claim: OpenAI positions ChatGPT as a private AI assistant and states it does not sell user data.
What we found: A class action filed May 13, 2026, alleges OpenAI embedded Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics in the ChatGPT web interface, sharing users' chat topics, identifiers, and contact details with Meta and Google without consent. The suit cites violations of ECPA and California's Invasion of Privacy Act, seeking up to $5,000 per violation.
What they claim: OpenAI previously stated it does not sell user data
What we found: On February 9, 2026, OpenAI launched ads in ChatGPT for Free and Go tier users. Ads use contextual matching based on current conversation topics, past chat history, and previous ad interactions. Q4 2026 will add multi-turn conversation retargeting and first-party customer list matching via hashed emails/phone numbers matched against ChatGPT profiles.
What they claim: Temporary Chat is private and untracked.
What we found: Not used for training, doesn't appear in history. But retained 30 days. Still subject to abuse screening. 'Temporary' means 30 days.
What they claim: ChatGPT treats all users' privacy equally.
What we found: Enterprise/API: no training. Free/Plus: training, review, retention. Memory disabled in EU. Different rules by plan and region.
What they claim: OpenAI positions ChatGPT as safe and beneficial AI
What we found: Italy's data protection authority (Garante) temporarily banned ChatGPT on March 31, 2023 — the first country to ban the product. Grounds: no legal basis for mass collection of personal data for training, no age verification, no mechanism for users to correct inaccurate outputs about themselves. ChatGPT was restored after OpenAI added an age gate, a privacy policy link, and an opt-out — but the Garante is still investigating. The European Data Protection Board created a ChatGPT Task Force across all EU regulators.
What they claim: OpenAI says it respects copyright and intellectual property
What we found: The New York Times sued OpenAI in December 2023 for copyright infringement, seeking billions in damages. The lawsuit demonstrated ChatGPT could reproduce Times articles nearly verbatim. The Authors Guild filed a separate lawsuit representing 17 authors including John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, and Jodi Picoult. Sarah Silverman, Michael Chabon, and other authors filed additional suits. OpenAI's training data included Books3 (196,640 pirated books) and Common Crawl (the entire public internet).
What they claim: OpenAI terms state users are responsible for their use of ChatGPT outputs
What we found: Samsung engineers pasted proprietary semiconductor source code into ChatGPT for debugging and optimisation. Three separate incidents in 20 days. Samsung discovered the leaks, banned ChatGPT internally, and threatened to fire employees who used it. Apple, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Verizon, and Deutsche Bank all subsequently banned or restricted ChatGPT for employees.
What they claim: OpenAI states ChatGPT's code execution environment cannot make direct outbound network requests
What we found: Security researchers (Feb 2026) discovered a DNS-based side channel that allowed conversation data — including user messages, uploaded files, and AI-generated summaries — to be silently exfiltrated from ChatGPT without any warning, approval, or visible indication. A single malicious prompt could turn an ordinary conversation into a covert data channel. Separately, 225,000+ OpenAI credentials were found for sale on the dark web stolen via infostealers.
What they claim: OpenAI claims to handle personal data responsibly and in compliance with applicable privacy laws
What we found: Four Canadian privacy commissioners (federal + BC, Alberta, Quebec) jointly ruled in May 2026 that OpenAI violated PIPEDA and provincial privacy laws. Findings: scraped personal data including health and children's data without consent, launched knowing the model fabricated facts about real people, operated without data deletion policies. BC and Alberta refused to fully resolve, stating consent for scraped data "cannot be obtained after the fact."
What they claim: ChatGPT gives users control over data and training.
What we found: Trains by default. Opt-out only future chats. Memory persists after deletion. Court order (May-Sept 2025) preserved deleted conversations. Operator retains screenshots 90 days. 30-day abuse screening retention even when opted out.
What they claim: Conversations are private between you and ChatGPT.
What we found: Human reviewers read conversations for accuracy/safety. Training opt-out doesn't prevent review. No disclosure of review scope. Enterprise excluded; free/Plus users are the review pool.
What they claim: OpenAI promotes safety systems and responsible AI deployment
What we found: In February 2026, Jesse Van Rootselaar killed eight people at a school in Tumbler Ridge, BC. OpenAI's automated system had flagged her account for "gun violence activity and planning" months earlier. A safety team urged management to report it. Leadership decided the threat was not "imminent and credible" and simply deactivated the account. The shooter created a new account and continued planning. Sam Altman issued a public apology. Seven families sued OpenAI in April 2026.
What they claim: OpenAI argued that ChatGPT conversation logs are private and should not be disclosed in litigation.
What we found: In January 2026, US District Judge Sidney Stein ordered OpenAI to produce 20 million ChatGPT conversation logs to copyright plaintiffs. The court rejected OpenAI's privacy argument, ruling that users "voluntarily submitted their communications" to OpenAI and thus had no reasonable expectation of privacy.
What they claim: OpenAI says ChatGPT outputs are reliable and useful for work, coding, writing, and research
What we found: New York lawyer Steven Schwartz used ChatGPT to write a legal brief citing 6 court cases. Every case was fabricated — the courts, the judges, the rulings, the quotes were all invented by ChatGPT. Schwartz told the judge he did not know ChatGPT could generate fake citations. He was sanctioned $5,000 and his firm was sanctioned by the court. The Avianca case (Mata v. Avianca) became the global example of AI hallucination risk in professional settings.