OpenAI has decided to disable the indexing of public ChatGPT dialogues by search engines following a wave of criticism regarding the exposure of confidential information. This was announced by OpenAI's chief security officer, Dane Staki, on X.

The feature allowed search engines to index conversations created by users in public mode. Examples of dialogues surfaced on social media where individuals allegedly confessed to legal violations, disclosed business secrets, or shared other sensitive information. Such data could appear in Google search results if published through the public share chat feature.

According to Staki, as of August 2, 2025, indexing of such pages will be prohibited. OpenAI is also exploring additional steps to limit access to such materials if users accidentally made them public.

The share chat feature was introduced in 2023 as a means to share interesting or educational examples of interaction with ChatGPT. However, the company did not anticipate the scale at which public links could be disseminated or discovered by search engines.

It is worth noting that OpenAI recently added a new feature in ChatGPT — Study Mode. This allows users to solve tasks step by step.