A chilling vulnerability recently exposed the private conversations of millions of users of the AI chatbot application, Chat & Ask AI. An independent researcher discovered a gaping security flaw in January, gaining access to a staggering 300 million messages – a digital Pandora’s Box of deeply personal information.
The exposed data wasn’t harmless chatter; it encompassed sensitive discussions surrounding incredibly vulnerable topics, including drug use and even suicidal thoughts. Chat & Ask AI, developed by Istanbul-based Codeway and available on major app stores, boasts a user base of approximately 50 million people, making the scale of the breach particularly alarming.
This application operates as a middleman, offering limited free access to powerful large language models created by other tech giants like OpenAI, Claude, and Google. However, this convenience came at a steep price: a critical weakness in their Google Firebase configuration left user data wide open.
The researcher bypassed security measures with surprising ease, effectively authenticating himself as a legitimate user. This allowed him to access the message history of a shocking 25 million individuals, meticulously analyzing around 60,000 messages before alerting Codeway to the problem.
Fortunately, the vulnerability was swiftly addressed once reported, and there have been no confirmed instances of the stolen data appearing publicly online. Despite this quick response, the incident serves as a stark reminder of the inherent risks associated with entrusting AI chatbots with personal information.
Conversations with AI are rarely truly private. These systems are designed to retain data, learning from interactions to improve future responses. Utilizing a reseller like Chat & Ask AI introduces an additional layer of potential risk, as demonstrated by this recent and unsettling data leak.
This incident underscores a crucial point: think carefully before sharing sensitive details with any AI chatbot. The illusion of privacy can be easily shattered, leaving your most personal thoughts exposed to unforeseen consequences.
