A new study by the US Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) suggests that many AI companies are applying manipulative design tactics to make it difficult for users to refuse to share personal data.
According to a report released by this unit, major language model providers (LLMs) such as OpenAI, Google and Meta are said to use many methods similar to traditional data brokers to reduce user data control capabilities.
EPIC said that many companies do not clearly set forms for refusing to share data on their homepages or in their security policies.
Some platforms also require users to fill in multiple different forms for the same request, making the process complicated and time-consuming.
The study also suggests that OpenAI currently does not provide a clear tool for users to refuse to sell or transfer personal data.
Instead, this platform mainly allows users to request the deletion of information appearing in ChatGPT's response, instead of deleting the platform data that the company is storing.
According to EPIC, this issue is particularly worrying because AI companies are currently participating in a vast data ecosystem where personal information can be shared between many different parties such as data brokers, advertising platforms and technology businesses.
This organization warns that the lack of mechanisms to deny transparency can lead to many serious safety risks.
The report cites a number of past cases where commercial data was used to locate, harass or target women and other vulnerable groups.
In the study, EPIC checked the privacy protection processes of 38 large data companies. The results showed that many forms of "manipulated design" are commonly used.
Some companies are said to hide links that refuse to share data in small, hard-to-find text. Others require users to create an account or pay a registration fee before exercising their privacy rights.
Researchers also found that on platforms such as X, OpenAI or Tinder, users must log in to their accounts first to be able to send requests to refuse to share data.
In addition, TikTok and Amazon are said to provide privacy forms but do not have clear options to refuse the sale of personal data.
For dating apps, research shows that Bumble users are defaulted to participate in data sharing through pre-tagged options, which can cause confusion for users.
Responding to the study, Amazon said that the company does not sell customer personal information to third parties, so users by default do not need to perform data sharing refusal.
Meanwhile, OpenAI affirms that they only share limited data with marketing partners for advertising and provide many ways for users to control privacy.
However, EPIC believes that even if the forms are improved, users will still find it difficult to protect their privacy if they have to send individual requests to each company holding their data.
According to this organization, a more effective solution is to limit data collection from the beginning and build stricter regulations to prevent businesses from storing unnecessary personal information.
