Shared ChatGPT conversations show up in Google search results

Timeline

• Late July 2025. Fast Company reports that shared conversations appear in Google results.
• 2025-07-31. OpenAI’s chief information security officer announces that the feature is being removed.

Trigger or entry point

Users ticking “Make this chat discoverable” when creating a public link.

Failure mechanism

The option was opt-in. A smaller line of text under the checkbox explained that the chat could be shown in web searches. No model failed here: the cause was a product design that made it easy to publish a conversation without meaning to. The checkbox appeared in the same pop-up that creates a public link to a conversation.

Impact

Engadget reports that Fast Company found thousands of indexed conversations. Neither source gives a figure from OpenAI. Engadget dates the Fast Company article to earlier the same week, and the announcement of the removal to Thursday.

Response

OpenAI’s security chief called the feature a “short-lived experiment” and said it created too many chances for people to share things by accident. OpenAI removed it. According to Malwarebytes, the change was rolling out to all users by the next morning. Both reports link to the statement on X.

Mitigations

OpenAI said it was working with search engines to remove indexed content. Malwarebytes notes that cached results may stay visible for a time.