Be Careful Not to Spill Any Beans

Because of the risk of inadvertently supplying the bot with sensitive, business or personal information, companies are already taking the step of banning its use. Three of these businesses include Samsung, Goldman Sachs and Apple. Students need to take similar precautions when chatting with the bot. Open AI has stated it will make some information available to unspecified third parties. There are also security breach concerns.

Professors opting to use ChatGPT for assignment purposes should make sure students are aware of privacy issues and may also want to offer students the opportunity to opt out if they choose. Because the tool is so new, universities have not had time to develop their own policies about its use. 

Your Chats Used for Training Purposes

The company that created ChatGPT - Open AI - has been clear from the start about its intention of improving the tool by making it free to users and then using their interactions to make improvements. (ChatGP- 3.5 is free, ChatGPT-4 costs $20/month.) So, ChatGPT-3.5 is in something of a beta phase with current - and many unwitting - users identifying the bugs for free because the chats are then available for training purposes.  After meeting criticism, however, Open AI has since offered a way for users to opt out of having their conversations used for training purposes. All conversations are held for 30 days.

The links included in "Associated Links for Privacy Concerns" includes Open AI's privacy policy for ChatGPT and a separate article on its rationale. Note that Open AI's privacy policy is in a fluid state as it reacts to bans, concerns and proposed regulations.