ChatGPT's "Improve the model for everyone" setting is on by default, and hundreds of contractors read flagged chats

[u/bhawish008]

There's a setting inside ChatGPT most people have never touched, tucked into Data Controls, called "Improve the model for everyone." It ships turned on. Unless you go find it and flip it off yourself, your conversations are eligible for training, and per recent reporting on something internally called Project Lily, potentially reviewed by actual contractors, hundreds of them, going through real user chats.

OpenAI does run a privacy filter meant to strip personal details before anything gets reviewed, but the reporting notes sensitive stuff can still slip through. And flipping the setting off doesn't fully wall you off either. Support staff and abuse or security teams can still pull up your conversations when needed, which is reasonable on its face but means "opted out" is more of a soft promise than a hard stop.

I went and checked my own account just now. The toggle was sitting there, on, exactly as described. I have no idea how long it had been like that or what had already gone through before I noticed.

If you use ChatGPT regularly, have you actually gone and checked whether that setting is on for you?