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| Meta AI allows you to share your chats with its bot to a public feed. But do you want to? Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images |
If you’ve been chatting away with Meta’s new AI assistant, sharing questions about career advice, relationship woes, or even health concerns, you might want to think twice before hitting “share.” That seemingly harmless click could land your personal AI conversation name, contact info, and all directly on Google’s search results.
Yes, your AI chats can be Googled.
While OpenAI recently reversed course and stopped letting shared ChatGPT conversations show up on search engines, Meta is not following suit. The company confirmed that it will continue allowing Google to index publicly shared chats from its stand-alone Meta AI app, even if users weren’t fully aware of the implications.
And that’s a big deal.
ChatGPT Took a Step Back. Meta Isn’t Budging.
Earlier this week, OpenAI quietly made a change after users discovered that publicly shared ChatGPT chats were appearing in Google searches. Although users had explicitly chosen to make those chats public, many seemed shocked to learn that “public” also meant searchable. OpenAI responded by turning off the indexing function.
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| The Meta AI app warns you before you share a post to the Discover feed. Meta AI / screenshot |
Meta, however, is taking a different route.
The tech giant launched its stand-alone Meta AI app earlier this year. Within it, users can interact with the chatbot, then choose to share certain conversations to a social-style “Discover” feed. When you opt to share, your chat becomes publicly viewable and Google’s crawlers are watching.
This means that any chat shared to Meta’s Discover feed can potentially be found via a Google search, often alongside other identifying information like names, locations, or even email addresses.
“Public” Might Not Mean What You Think It Does
Meta has added more prominent warnings lately. Now, if you hit the “share” button, you’ll see a pop-up reminder: “Conversations on feed are public so anyone can see them and engage.” That’s a good start but does it really explain that your conversation could end up in a global search index?
Not exactly.
For many users, “public” may feel limited to the in-app world a space they assume only a niche crowd of Meta AI users are exploring. But the reality is that public = searchable. If you ask Meta AI about sensitive topics and then hit “share,” that content can live online in perpetuity, searchable by anyone.
In one case reported by Truth Sider, shared chats in the Discover feed included medical questions, family issues, and even phone numbers. While some of that may have been intentional, much of it almost certainly was not.
Why Does Google Index Meta AI Chats?
Because users can share links to Discover feed posts beyond the app, those pages live on publicly accessible URLs. Google’s bots find and index these pages just like they would a blog post, news article, or product page.
In other words, while Meta AI currently exists only as a mobile app, the Discover feed lives on the open web.
You may stumble upon a user’s chat with the AI about the best local balloon shops. It might sound harmless, but in other examples, it’s been a whole lot more personal.
Why Would Anyone Share Their AI Chats?
It’s a fair question. Some users do enjoy showing off AI-generated images, clever prompts, or even showcasing how the chatbot answered an obscure trivia question. These harmless posts make up the bulk of what now appears in the Discover feed.
But others perhaps unaware of how public the feed really is have accidentally posted conversations that would make most people uncomfortable. And in the early days of Meta AI’s launch, the feed was filled with private, intimate, and occasionally dangerous oversharing.
Meta’s Daniel Roberts reiterated that all Discover content is opt-in and involves a multi-step process. That’s true but complexity and clarity are not always the same thing. The “opt-in” may not feel fully informed, especially for users who aren’t steeped in the nuances of web indexing and AI transparency.
The Blurry Line Between Private and Public
This situation highlights a growing issue in consumer AI tools: the fine print.
What does it mean to “share” a chat? What does “public” imply when it comes to an app that otherwise feels closed? And perhaps most importantly, how many users truly understand that their conversations can be indexed and found by anyone online?
Even now, Meta shows no signs of disabling Google indexing of shared content. And while the Discover feed is gradually looking cleaner more art, fewer personal confessions some private messages still slip through.
For users, this raises a troubling paradox. AI assistants are marketed as private confidants, but with a single button tap, they become a broadcast platform and not everyone realizes the leap they’re making.
Should You Be Worried?
If you’re a Meta AI user and haven’t shared anything to the Discover feed, you have nothing to worry about. Your chats remain private. But if you have shared something especially in the app’s earlier days it may already be on the open web, and there’s no easy undo button once it's been indexed.
Meta isn’t doing anything sneaky users are opting in but the confusion is real, and the stakes are higher than they might appear.
As AI tools become more social, and platforms like Meta blend private experiences with public sharing, users need to tread carefully.
Because what you tell your chatbot today could end up on Google tomorrow.
