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Cybersecurity experts warn Americans against oversharing personal info with AI

Source: InvestigateTV
Author: Rachel DePompa
Published: Oct 5, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC
Collected: Oct 6, 2026, 2:22 AM UTC
Original language: English
Country / region: United States · North America

Society & PrivacySafety & Risk

Summary

Cybersecurity experts, including HackerOne CEO Kara Sprague, warn that anything typed into an AI chatbot can persist and be misused, advising people to treat chatbots like strangers: never share addresses, phone numbers or bank details. They recommend turning off model-training and memory-retention settings, noting that AI is also making it easier for criminals to hack personal devices and build hyper-personalized scams.

Confirmed facts

Experts advise never typing into a chatbot anything you would not say aloud to a stranger
Privacy settings in most AI tools allow users to disable training on their conversations
The FBI logged over 22,000 AI-related fraud complaints in 2025, with reported losses near $893 million

Uncertainties

Deleting chat history does not guarantee data is removed from training pipelines
Protections vary widely between tools, account types and subscription levels

Why it mattersAnalysis

Hundreds of millions of people confide in chatbots daily; few understand where those words go or who can use them.

Human impactAnalysis

The most personal conversations — health, money, relationships — are exactly the ones that create the richest targets for scammers.

Educational relevanceAnalysis

A practical digital-literacy checklist: privacy settings, oversharing risks, and verifying AI-provided information.

Professional relevanceAnalysis

Employers should set clear policies on what staff may paste into AI tools, especially client or patient data.

Global South relevanceAnalysis

Users in countries with weak data-protection laws have the least recourse when chatbot data is misused.

AI-assistance disclosure

This summary may have been assisted by AI-assisted tools for classification, translation, extraction, or drafting. The original source should be consulted. Human review and editorial judgment remain responsible for publication.

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