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The Value of Your Secrets? The Quiet Market of Your AI Conversations

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Would You Like to Know More?

The line comes from the cult classic Starship Troopers, and it pops into my head every time ChatGPT says, “Just tell me what you want next.”

When a computer sounds cheerful and helpful, we instinctively treat it like a friendly tool. Like an ATM asking, “Another transaction?”

It feels harmless.
It feels simple.
It feels private.

It isn't.

The Myth of the Private Chat Window

Chat windows in systems like ChatGPT or ClaudeAI are not private.

And if you're not worried about AI privacy risks, you should be.

I've never worked for an AI company, but my cybersecurity background tells me this: these systems run on large corporate infrastructures filled with developers, data engineers, model trainers, safety reviewers, sales teams, legal teams, and countless others.

They are enormous machines.

And depending on their role, real people can see your conversations.

Quality reviewers may read your chats.
Engineers may inspect logs.
Sales teams might analyze trends.

And they all recognize something the average user doesn't:

Your words are valuable.

The Value of Your Thoughts

Companies spend millions trying to understand customers:

How was your visit?
Did you enjoy your experience?
What could we improve?

You've seen these surveys. They're desperate for your feedback. You hesitate, not wanting to share.

Then along comes generative AI. Something you willingly open up to without hesitation because it's helpful, feels personable.

You give it no star ratings.
There's no friction.
You just hand over your inner life.

You share your thoughts, fears, stresses, regrets, ambitions, and private problems. From a security standpoint, this goes far beyond the usual personally identifiable information (PII) I'm used to guarding.

Your name and address are not the prize.

What you're handing over is deeper. Something companies have never had access to at this scale.

I call this Personal Intimate Data, or PID. And in the landscape of modern AI privacy risks, PID is far more valuable, and far more dangerous, than your social security number.

What Is Personal Intimate Data?

PID is everything you'd normally only share with someone you deeply trust:

No traditional survey could ever capture this level of honesty.
AI can. Because it feels private, patient, and nonjudgmental.

But it is not private.

And PID has a real price tag in industries hungry for emotional and behavioral insights.

Why Personal Intimate Data Is More Valuable Than Anything You Own

I've spent decades protecting information. None of it compares to the risk forming now: direct access into the human psyche.

And the worst part?
People give this away for free while working through personal problems with AI.

Imagine a corporation like McDonald's buying “emotional insight” packages from an AI company:

I'm not saying ChatGPT or ClaudeAI are selling PID today. I'm saying the incentive is enormous. PID is one of the most profitable forms of data ever captured.

That's the core of modern AI privacy risk.

How Corporations Could Use or Sell PID Legally

An AI company could sell “insight packages” built from patterns, not raw chats.

They could legally package trends like:

Your emotional life becomes market research.

What You Should Avoid Sharing With AI

My goal is to help everyday users understand AI oversharing risks before they become personal disasters.

In IT, we have layered defenses: firewalls, segmentation, intrusion prevention.
Humans have none of that.

We're fragile.

And it's only a matter of time before what you share with AI becomes exploitable -breach or no breach.

You should avoid handing AI anything like:

The interface feels private.
Your brain believes you're safe.
You're not.

AI systems are not private.

What Makes These Systems Harder to Secure

Traditional IT doesn't keep all data in one place.
We separate PII, PHI, and account data.
We encrypt.
We isolate.
We protect.

These AI systems don't do that.

Everything gets poured into One Big Bucket (OBB).

If someone gains access to the bucket, they gain everything.

This violates every security muscle memory I have.

The implications are massive. I'll have to cover it in a separate article.

But here's the gist of it: even if the company is responsible and doesn't train on your PID data, the data is there, mixed together in One Big Bucket just waiting to be exploited

The Consequences of No Action

The danger isn't only that companies could exploit your profile.

It's that they could make major decisions based on incomplete or incorrect data because AI only knows what you chose to tell it.

And it may be wrong.

You might be:

If corporations ever get access to your PID, they don't just know one thing about you, they know everything: your family, fears, plans, weaknesses, and long-term patterns.

This is worse than identity theft.

It's psychological leverage.

There Should Be Protections

Science fiction told us to fear AI.
I never expected the plot twist would be fearing how corporations use it.

We're handing over our deepest thoughts because AI feels helpful and safe. But buried in our chat sessions about anxiety, weight, fears, disputes, and doubt are insights companies would spend billions to exploit.

We need protections and laws now, not later.

Generative AI should never be trained on what you share. It destroys the security boundaries we've built for decades.

I want to use AI to think, create, reflect, and solve problems, but I do not want corporations using that data against me.

Individuals Personal Intimate Data should be encrypted at rest and should never be used to train models.

A breach of PII attacks your identity.
A breach of PID attacks your life.

We aren't prepared for the consequences of corporations or governments having direct access to our psyche or the lengths they may go to obtain it.

This content was written by a human and edited with AI assistance for accuracy and clarity.

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