A recent investigation uncovered a surprising privacy lapse: ChatGPT conversations shared via the “Share” button with the “Make this chat discoverable” option enabled became indexed by Google and other search engines. This exposure includes more than 4,500 chats, with sensitive content spanning mental health, personal trauma, work strategies, email addresses, and more .

Users generated these shareable links through two deliberate steps - but many reportedly misinterpreted the implications, assuming the chats would remain private or limited in audience . OpenAI CEO Dane Stuckey called it a “short‑lived experiment” and quickly removed the discoverability feature. The company is now working with search engines to remove already indexed content.

If you have shared a chat, it may still show up in cached search results even after deleting it within ChatGPT. Deletion doesn’t guarantee immediate removal from search indexes.