The key facts

  • The Russian Interior Ministry reported that ChatGPT stores personal information in the AI's personalized memory, building a digital dossier
  • For nearly half of users, information about health and beliefs was stored; for most accounts, goals, intentions and behavioral traits
  • The agency advises checking memory settings and not uploading official documents or personal information into the chat

What the Interior Ministry reported

The Interior Ministry of Russia's Directorate for Combating the Unlawful Use of Information and Communication Technologies announced on its Telegram channel, that ChatGPT can store users' personal information in the AI's personalized memory, thereby building a digital dossier. According to the agency, most of these records about a person are created without their consent: names, addresses, information about wealth and social standing.

What data is accumulated

The Interior Ministry specified the scale of information accumulation: nearly half of users had data about their health and beliefs stored, while most accounts had goals, intentions, preferences and behavioral traits of people recorded. From a security standpoint, in the agency's assessment, this creates potential risks of user identification even when they use pseudonyms.

Recommendations and context

The Ministry advised checking the memory and personalization settings of AI services, and also not uploading official documents or personal information into the chat. Earlier, the head of this directorate, Filipp Nemov, named three basic rules of digital hygiene: controlling the dissemination of personal data, understanding the capabilities of internet tools, and regularly updating one's knowledge of cybersecurity. He also previously described what information about Russians is stored in databases. The Interior Ministry's statements concern Russian users; the publications do not mention any reaction from ChatGPT's developer or any confirmation of these assessments on its part.