Understanding Privacy Norms Around LLM-Based Chatbots: A Contextual Integrity Perspective

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Tran, Sarah, Lu, Hongfan, Slaughter, Isaac, Herman, Bernease, Dangol, Aayushi, Fu, Yue, Chen, Lufei, Gebreyohannes, Biniyam, Howe, Bill, Hiniker, Alexis, Weber, Nicholas, Wolfe, Robert
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Tran, Sarah
Lu, Hongfan
Slaughter, Isaac
Herman, Bernease
Dangol, Aayushi
Fu, Yue
Chen, Lufei
Gebreyohannes, Biniyam
Howe, Bill
Hiniker, Alexis
Weber, Nicholas
Wolfe, Robert
author_facet Tran, Sarah
Lu, Hongfan
Slaughter, Isaac
Herman, Bernease
Dangol, Aayushi
Fu, Yue
Chen, Lufei
Gebreyohannes, Biniyam
Howe, Bill
Hiniker, Alexis
Weber, Nicholas
Wolfe, Robert
contents LLM-driven chatbots like ChatGPT have created large volumes of conversational data, but little is known about how user privacy expectations are evolving with this technology. We conduct a survey experiment with 300 US ChatGPT users to understand emerging privacy norms for sharing chatbot data. Our findings reveal a stark disconnect between user concerns and behavior: 82% of respondents rated chatbot conversations as sensitive or highly sensitive - more than email or social media posts - but nearly half reported discussing health topics and over one-third discussed personal finances with ChatGPT. Participants expressed strong privacy concerns (t(299) = 8.5, p < .01) and doubted their conversations would remain private (t(299) = -6.9, p < .01). Despite this, respondents uniformly rejected sharing personal data (search history, emails, device access) for improved services, even in exchange for premium features worth $200. To identify which factors influence appropriate chatbot data sharing, we presented participants with factorial vignettes manipulating seven contextual factors. Linear mixed models revealed that only the transmission factors such as informed consent, data anonymization, or the removal of personally identifiable information, significantly affected perceptions of appropriateness and concern for data access. Surprisingly, contextual factors including the recipient of the data (hospital vs. tech company), purpose (research vs. advertising), type of content, and geographic location did not show significant effects. Our results suggest that users apply consistent baseline privacy expectations to chatbot data, prioritizing procedural safeguards over recipient trustworthiness. This has important implications for emerging agentic AI systems that assume user willingness to integrate personal data across platforms.
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institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Understanding Privacy Norms Around LLM-Based Chatbots: A Contextual Integrity Perspective
Tran, Sarah
Lu, Hongfan
Slaughter, Isaac
Herman, Bernease
Dangol, Aayushi
Fu, Yue
Chen, Lufei
Gebreyohannes, Biniyam
Howe, Bill
Hiniker, Alexis
Weber, Nicholas
Wolfe, Robert
Computers and Society
LLM-driven chatbots like ChatGPT have created large volumes of conversational data, but little is known about how user privacy expectations are evolving with this technology. We conduct a survey experiment with 300 US ChatGPT users to understand emerging privacy norms for sharing chatbot data. Our findings reveal a stark disconnect between user concerns and behavior: 82% of respondents rated chatbot conversations as sensitive or highly sensitive - more than email or social media posts - but nearly half reported discussing health topics and over one-third discussed personal finances with ChatGPT. Participants expressed strong privacy concerns (t(299) = 8.5, p < .01) and doubted their conversations would remain private (t(299) = -6.9, p < .01). Despite this, respondents uniformly rejected sharing personal data (search history, emails, device access) for improved services, even in exchange for premium features worth $200. To identify which factors influence appropriate chatbot data sharing, we presented participants with factorial vignettes manipulating seven contextual factors. Linear mixed models revealed that only the transmission factors such as informed consent, data anonymization, or the removal of personally identifiable information, significantly affected perceptions of appropriateness and concern for data access. Surprisingly, contextual factors including the recipient of the data (hospital vs. tech company), purpose (research vs. advertising), type of content, and geographic location did not show significant effects. Our results suggest that users apply consistent baseline privacy expectations to chatbot data, prioritizing procedural safeguards over recipient trustworthiness. This has important implications for emerging agentic AI systems that assume user willingness to integrate personal data across platforms.
title Understanding Privacy Norms Around LLM-Based Chatbots: A Contextual Integrity Perspective
topic Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06760