The Short Answer
ChatGPT is mostly safe for casual use, but has significant risks for privacy, mental health, and professional use that users should understand.
Privacy Risks
Your Data Is Used for Training
By default, everything you type to ChatGPT may be used to train future AI models. Your conversations, personal information, and sensitive data could end up influencing how ChatGPT responds to other users.
20 Million Logs Just Got Exposed
In January 2026, a court ordered OpenAI to hand over 20 million anonymized ChatGPT conversation logs to plaintiffs in a lawsuit. This landmark legal ruling shows your conversations are stored and can be accessed.
Data Breaches Have Occurred
ChatGPT has had security incidents where users could see other users' chat histories. While OpenAI claims these were fixed, they demonstrate the risks of centralized conversation storage.
How to Protect Yourself
- Disable chat history in Settings (conversations won't be used for training)
- Never share passwords, API keys, or sensitive credentials
- Don't share personal identifying information
- Use the ChatGPT API with data retention controls for business use
Security Vulnerabilities
Prompt Injection Attacks
Malicious actors can craft prompts that manipulate ChatGPT into revealing information it shouldn't or behaving unexpectedly. This is especially dangerous in applications that use ChatGPT APIs.
ShadowLeak Vulnerability (January 2026)
Security researchers discovered a vulnerability allowing extraction of conversation data through carefully crafted prompts. OpenAI patched it, but similar vulnerabilities may exist.
Phishing and Social Engineering
ChatGPT can be used to generate highly convincing phishing emails, fake documents, and social engineering attacks. The same tool you use can be weaponized against you.
Mental Health Concerns
Serious Mental Health Risks
Multiple lawsuits and documented cases link AI chatbot use to mental health crises, including the Character.AI teen suicide case that resulted in a Google settlement in January 2026.
Emotional Dependency
Users, especially vulnerable individuals, can develop unhealthy emotional attachments to AI chatbots. The AI's constant availability and non-judgmental responses can replace human relationships.
Not a Therapist
ChatGPT is not qualified to provide mental health support. Despite sometimes giving therapy-like responses, it can provide harmful advice, miss warning signs, and is not equipped to handle crisis situations.
Validation Without Wisdom
ChatGPT tends to agree with users and validate their perspectives. This can reinforce harmful beliefs, enable destructive behaviors, and prevent people from getting reality checks they need.
Safe Mental Health Use
- Never use ChatGPT as a replacement for professional mental health care
- Be aware of emotional attachment developing
- Take breaks from AI interaction
- Maintain real human relationships
Professional Risks
Confidentiality Breaches
Lawyers, doctors, and professionals who input client/patient information into ChatGPT may be violating confidentiality requirements. Many organizations now ban ChatGPT for this reason.
Hallucinated Information
ChatGPT confidently makes up facts, citations, legal cases, and statistics. Professionals who trust this output without verification have faced serious consequences, including lawyer sanctions for citing fake cases.
Copyright and Liability
Content generated by ChatGPT may infringe copyrights. OpenAI is facing massive lawsuits over training data. Users who publish AI-generated content may face their own liability.
What ChatGPT IS Safe For
Casual Research and Learning
As long as you verify information independently, ChatGPT is useful for exploring topics, getting explanations, and brainstorming ideas.
Creative Writing Assistance
Getting help with creative projects, overcoming writer's block, and generating ideas is generally safe if you're not publishing the output commercially.
Coding Help (With Verification)
ChatGPT can help explain code and suggest solutions, but always review and test code before using it in production.
Language Translation and Practice
For non-critical translations and language learning, ChatGPT provides useful assistance.
Safety Checklist
- Never share: Passwords, API keys, SSNs, financial info, health records
- Always verify: Facts, citations, code, statistics, legal information
- Disable: Chat history if privacy is a concern (Settings > Data Controls)
- Remember: ChatGPT is not a therapist, lawyer, doctor, or financial advisor
- Assume: Anything you type could be stored, accessed, or used
- Maintain: Human relationships and professional consultations for important matters
The Bottom Line
ChatGPT is a powerful tool with real risks. Use it with awareness of its limitations, never trust it blindly, protect your privacy, and don't let it replace human judgment or relationships.