Anyone can target ChatGPT users with ads using their phone numbers or emails, 404 Media finds

OpenAI lets advertisers pick out specific ChatGPT users by uploading lists of email addresses or phone numbers, according to tests by 404 Media.

Reporter Joseph Cox said on Oct 15 that he set up a campaign in about five minutes and ran an ad inside ChatGPT that read, "ChatGPT isn't private. OpenAI hires humans to read users' chats." Advertisers can add "context hints" so their ads show up next to related prompts; 404 Media aimed its ad at people asking about privacy and AI.

Lists can be uploaded raw or hashed, and Android advertising IDs work too. A list has to contain more than 25,000 entries before it can be used to target people.

Ads appear for Free and Go users. People can turn off "ads personalization," but the setting itself warns that ads may still be based on the current chat. "They are boiling the frog and hoping their users won't notice the privacy implications from their new ads," Zach Edwards, co-founder of DecryptAds, told 404 Media. OpenAI started showing ads in ChatGPT in the U.S. in February.