ChapGPT: email addresses, telephone numbers… Who is affected by security breaches?

Email addresses, phone numbers…Several personal information has leaked on the OpenAI chatbot, ChatGPT. Several American media, such as Bloomberg, alerted to the malfunctions of the site during the week. Already on Sunday, March 19, 2023, several users noticed failures. For example, some of them have noticed other people’s conversation titles in the history bar on the left side of the interface. Fortunately, the conversations were completely anonymized.

ChatGPT was temporarily closed for the first time, the time to solve the problem. “We had a significant issue in ChatGPT due to a bug in an open source library, for which a fix has now been released and we have just completed validation. A small percentage of users were able to view chat titles. ‘conversation history of other users”, defended Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI in a tweet.

Only a few hours later, users noticed that the site’s payment interface – useful for those wishing to subscribe to the paid version of the platform – contained emails and telephone numbers of other subscribers.

According to BFMTV, another Internet user also reported the appearance of new personal data each time he refreshed the page. “OpenAI told PC Mag that investigations were underway to understand the precise cause of these malfunctions. According to the company, open-source ChatGPT software is the source of these various bugs”, specify our colleagues from the continuous news channel.

Arrived in the wrong hands, this information can be diverted in a malicious way. Your email address, for example, can be used for phishing attempts, or phishing in French. The scammer writes to you pretending to be a trusted third party, such as a friend, your bank advisor or an e-commerce site, and tries to retrieve your bank details or obtain payment from you.

Your phone number, too, can be used against you.

Your phone number is also full of valuable information. It allows, for example, to find your first and last name, even your address and your age… And this, simply thanks to an Internet search. By forwarding your messages and calls to their phone, a scammer can contact your operator, your friends or complete strangers pretending to be you. In a previous article, Planet summarized everything a thug can have fun doing with your phone number.