TZUTC: -0500
MSGID: 1246.consprcy@1:2320/105 2cdfa06f
PID: Synchronet 3.21a-Linux master/123f2d28a Jul 12 2025 GCC 12.2.0
TID: SBBSecho 3.28-Linux master/123f2d28a Jul 12 2025 GCC 12.2.0
BBSID: CAPCITY2
CHRS: ASCII 1
FORMAT: flowed
[This is not really new.  It has been going on ever since we started moving
more and more of our lives online. -- Mike]

Convenience over privacy? Nearly one in three Brits sharing confidential
information with AI chatbots

Date:
Fri, 18 Jul 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Description:
New data from NymVPN has shown Britons are favoring convenience when using AI
chatbots, despite the extensive privacy risks.

FULL STORY

Almost one in three Britons shares sensitive personal data with AI chatbots
like OpenAIs ChatGPT, according to research from cybersecurity company NymVPN
. 30% of Brits have fed AI chatbots with confidential information such as
health and banking data, potentially putting their privacy  and that of 
others  at risk. 

This oversharing with the likes of ChatGPT and Google Gemini comes despite 
48% of respondents expressing privacy concerns over AI chatbots. This signals
that the issue extends to the workplace, with employees sharing sensitive
company and customer data. 

NymVPNs findings come in the wake of a number of recent high-profile data
breaches, most notably the Marks & Spencer cyber attack , which shows just 
how easily confidential data can fall into the wrong hands.

Convenience is being prioritized over security

NymVPNs research reveals that 26% of respondents admitted to disclosing
financial information related to salary, investments, and mortgages to AI
chatbots. Riskier still, 18% shared credit card or bank account data. 

24% of those surveyed by NymVPN admit to having shared customer data
including names and email addresses  with AI chatbots. More worrying still,
16% uploaded company financial data and internal documents such as contracts.
This is despite 43% expressing worry about sensitive company data being 
leaked by AI tools. 

AI tools have rapidly become part of how people work, but were seeing a
worrying trend where convenience is being prioritized over security, said
Harry Halpin, CEO of NymVPN. 

M&S, Co-op , and Adidas have all been in the headlines for the wrong reasons,
having fallen victim to data breaches. High-profile breaches show how
vulnerable even major organizations can be, and the more personal and
corporate data that is fed into AI, the bigger the target becomes for
cybercriminals, said Halpin.

The importance of not oversharing 

Since nearly a quarter of respondents share customer data with AI chatbots,
this emphasizes the urgency of companies implementing clear guidelines and
formal policies for the use of AI in the workplace. 

Employees and businesses urgently need to think about how theyre protecting
both personal privacy and company data when using AI tools, said Halpin. 

Although avoiding AI chatbots entirely would be the optimal solution for
privacy, its not always the most practical. Users should, at the very least,
avoid sharing sensitive information with AI chatbots. Privacy settings can
also be tweaked, such as disabling chat history or opting out of model
training. 

A VPN can add a layer of privacy when using AI chatbots such as ChatGPT,
encrypting a users internet traffic and original IP address. This helps keep 
a users location private and prevents their ISP from seeing what theyre doing
online. Still, even the best VPN isnt enough if sensitive personal data is
still being fed to AI.

======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/convenience-over-privacy-ne
arly-one-in-three-brits-sharing-confidential-information-with-ai-chatbots

$$
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
 * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)
SEEN-BY: 105/81 106/201 128/187 129/14 305 153/7715 154/110 218/700
SEEN-BY: 226/30 227/114 229/110 111 206 300 307 317 400 426 428 664
SEEN-BY: 229/700 705 266/512 291/111 320/219 322/757 342/200 396/45
SEEN-BY: 460/58 712/848 902/26 2320/0 105 304 3634/12 5075/35
PATH: 2320/105 229/426