“ChatGPT is getting more social,” reports PC Magazine, “with a new feature that allows you to sync your contacts to see if any of your friends are using the chatbot or any other OpenAI product…”
It’s “completely optional,” [OpenAI] says. However, even if you don’t opt in, anyone with your number…
Your friends could be sharing your public phone number! The one that’s listed and accessible to the world via the Internet’s version of the White Pages!
In the US, phone numbers aren’t private unless you pay extra (no one does except celebrities who are wasting their money… Because even if they pay it gets sold to 3rd parties anyway!).
That seems to be just another example of Americans trusting their corporate overlords over everyone and everything else, including their elected governments and to some extent their own freedom.
But sure, phone numbers were once widely considered public information (along with postal addresses, which were also in the white pages - innocent times!). In Europe at least, I believe that has not be the case for about 15 years. New phone number registrations are not publicly listed anywhere.
As another European, I can say that it must depend on the country: Just last year, our politicians were discussing changing the telecom laws to require consent, before information is published on the (online) white pages. Though I’ve been able to opt out of sharing my information through every phone company I’ve used