November 10, 2025

"As people increasingly turn to A.I. chat tools as confidants, therapists and advisers, we urgently need a new form of legal protection that would safeguard most private communications..."

"...between people and A.I. chatbots. I call it 'A.I. interaction privilege.'... At present, most digital interactions fall under the Third-Party Doctrine, which holds that information voluntarily disclosed to other parties — or stored on a company’s servers — carries 'no legitimate expectation of privacy.' This doctrine allows government access to much online behavior (such as Google search histories) without a warrant.... To leave these conversations legally unprotected is to invite a regime where citizens must fear that their digital introspection could someday be used against them. Private thought — whether spoken to a lawyer, a therapist or a machine — must remain free from the fear of state intrusion."

Writes the historian Nils Gilman, in "If You Tell ChatGPT Your Secrets, Will They Be Kept Safe?" (NYT).

23 comments:

n.n said...

Automaton Intelligence. Nothing has changed.

Leland said...

It sounds like the typical progressive argument to claim to protect people by convincing the people to give the progressives the power to censor the people's behavior. It's for your own good and will protect pregnant people and children.

doctrev said...

If you're stupid enough to assume AI-client confidentiality with an evil corporation, ChatGPT may as well do your thinking for you.

PM said...

"If You're Stupid Enough to Tell ChatGPT Your Secrets, Will They Be Kept Safe?" TIFI.

David-2 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David-2 said...

People delegating their thinking, such as it is, to large language models, which cannot reason. Mondami wins. Jasmine Crockett, AOC, Ketanji Jackson, etc. Starmer, Merz, Carney, etc. Brennan, Comey, Clapper, Strzok, Smith, etc. Men in women's bathrooms and locker rooms. Object Sexuality is a recognized thing. The more I think about it the more I support SMOD for 2028. If not 2026.

Beasts of England said...

Nothing is private in signals intelligence. Not this comment, not your search history, not anything you ask SIRI, not your text messages, not your cell phone calls. If it travels via the internet, cell tower, or satellite link, it’s scooped up. Period.

Bob from the NSA should have mentioned this.

Wilbur said...

No Alexa, no Siri, no nothing in my house.

Why anyone would is beyond me.

Beasts of England said...

’No Alexa, no Siri, no nothing in my house.’

Having a cell phone can monitor every word is bad enough. Alexa and Siri should be named Goebbels.

Beasts of England said...

’To leave these conversations legally unprotected is to invite a regime where citizens must fear that their digital introspection could someday be used against them.’

Let’s hope it remains ‘could’ and not ‘will’, but it’s a totalitarian’s wet dream. I think someone wrote a book about such a society.

Old and slow said...

Google search and web browsing histories should also be considered private and require a court order to access.

jim5301 said...

Privacy is so 20th century

Jim at said...

No Alexa, no Siri, no nothing in my house.

Why anyone would is beyond me.


We have Alexa with our Echo. It's unplugged when not in use.

Since buying it five or so years ago, I've deliberately baited 'her' into hearing only my voice and my suggestions. Like cars, whiskey, favorite musical artists ....

'She' refuses my wife's requests. Ignores her. If my wife requests a song? Nothing. Only responds when I make the request.

It's really enhanced our marriage. :)

Rabel said...

Gilman's solutions don't match up well with his concerns.

"If an A.I. service reasonably believes a user poses an immediate danger to self or others or has already caused harm, disclosure should be not just permitted, but obligated."

tommyesq said...

Private thoughts expressed to others is generally not protected from discovery, unless the other is a specific class of person - attorney, clergy, spouse, etc.

Shouting Thomas said...

To paraphrase Peter Diamandis: “Privacy is an obsolete concept.”

tommyesq said...

No Alexa, no Siri, no nothing in my house.

I agree, but that is likely not enough. I once had my Samsung television (which was turned off at the time) respond to a question I had asked someone on a phone call. Anything that permits voice commands is always listening.

FullMoon said...

Two visitors were talking about their dogs. I began getting email related to dog food and doggie toys. Creepy, 'cause only voice command thingy we had was Comcast remote

Jupiter said...

Well. There is something to be said for the "If you've got nothing to hide ..." point of view. Logically, if someone kidnapped that good-looking neighbor of yours who sunbathes nude out there in her back yard, and locked her up in a little room in their garage, you'd want them caught. Right? So, if they used ChatXYZ to plan it, you'd want the cops to find that out. Right?
Right?

bobby said...

Artificial Inanity.

Aggie said...

Just shaking my head. If you're telling anybody your secrets, and you don't know them personally, intimately, with a long-standing relationship, and you're not doing it face-to-face in a place you are fairly certain is secure - then you have no way of establishing they are confidential and secure in the first place. But how, on Earth, could you ever trust an Artificial Intelligence through a computer interface, on the internet? Because it says so?

n.n said...

You should also avoid Google, Bing, and other AIs with a memory. Blogger, too. Stop spying on me, Andrea, Siriusly. No more credit. No more crypto with perfect attribution.

n.n said...

The dog has unvetted loyalty, and the cat knows where the fetuses are sequestered. The transgender fish knows what you did last summer.

Post a Comment

Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 2 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith.