Attention! Our AI conversations were stolen and sold to data brokers.
Inside those chats there is the most private part of our lives. People talk about anxiety, depression, therapy, addictions. People ask advice about cheating, breakups, legal problems. Everything we tell an AI is written, word by word. Stay with me, because this affects everyone. I’ll explain what happened and how to avoid it.
The case starts with a browser extension, Urban VPN Proxy, a free VPN with millions of users. I know many people who use it. That’s why this story matters.
Security researchers found that after a July 9, 2025 update, the extension started capturing what users typed into AI chatbots and the replies, plus session data. It happened directly inside the browser page, while people were typing. The collection could continue even if the VPN was turned off. There was no clear switch to stop it. The only real solution was uninstalling the extension.
The most serious part is where the data went. The collected chats were shared with companies that work on analytics and data trading. A personal conversation stopped being private and became a data point in a commercial system.
Here in the United States, data brokers are real. There is a market that buys and sells information to build profiles and predict behavior. When AI chats enter that market, privacy is gone.
There is one rule we must keep in mind. Never give an AI information from your life that you truly want to keep private. Not because AI is evil, but because databases get breached. It has happened to banks, hospitals, telecom companies, social networks. It can happen here too. What you write today could become public tomorrow. It could be shared. It could be used for blackmail. It could reach people you never wanted to read those things.
What can we do? Remove browser extensions you don’t really need. Avoid free VPNs and unknown “privacy” tools inside the browser. If you need a VPN, use a trusted system app, not a browser plugin. Check extension permissions. Full access to websites means access to chats. Use a clean browser or a separate profile for AI tools. Never share sensitive, identifying, or deeply personal information.
AI chats are useful. They are not a safe diary.
#ArtificialDecisions #MCC