Hackers are already pointing the tip of their noses in the direction of ChatGPT, taking advantage of its popularity. On both the App Store and Google Play Store, clone applications soon took off. Obviously, you need to be cautious of them because they were built to steal your data and force you to spend enormous quantities of money.
The chatbot developed by OpenAI was quickly used maliciously. While fake apps are attempting to trick users, hackers are already using ChatGPT to steal users’ data. Fake copies of the app are available on the Google Play Store and App Store for an expensive monthly fee.
There are a ton of them available on the App Store and Google Play Store, as Top10VPN demonstrates. Despite the fact that there is only an online version of ChatGPT now, developers have inundated app stores with their copied apps to steal your data.
You should avoid these fake ChatGPT apps
On Android:
- AI Chat Companion
- ChatGPT 3: ChatGPT AI
- Talk GPT – Talk to ChatGPT
- ChatGPT AI Writing Assistant
- Open Chat – AI Chatbot App
On iOS:
- Open Chat – AI Chatbot
- Wisdom AI – Your AI Assistant
- Chat AI: Personal AI Assistant
- Alfred – Chat with GPT 3
- TalkGPT – Talk to ChatGPT
- Write For Me GPT AI Assistant
- Genie – GPT AI Assistant
Cloned ChatGPT apps are bad for your wallet and privacy
Top10VPN came to the following conclusion after conducting a number of in-depth analyses of the most well-known ChatGPT-3-based applications: “What we found were a handful of unclean, fake apps that brought no value to users. Instead, they invaded their privacy to use their data. Your location information is shared with ByteDance, Amazon, Appodeal, and InMobi, among others, via the ChatGPT AI Writing Assistant app”.
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The platform also criticizes some apps for charging expensive amounts for services that are offered for free. “An application costs $290 per week, which is equivalent to more than $15,000 per year,”. Remember that ChatGPT is an entirely free tool. Undoubtedly, OpenAI provides a $20 monthly membership with certain benefits (priority access, better responsiveness, testing of new functions)…
Here are the many ways that these fraudulent applications violate your privacy:
Android Apps
- Intrusive personal data collection: All 10 top-ranked ChatGPT clone apps in Google’s Play store collect and share data with poor privacy protections.
- Device fingerprinting: 5 apps allow third-party trackers to fingerprint users’ devices.
- IP addresses: 2 apps collect and share users’ IP addresses with third parties.
- TikTok/ByteDance: 1 app (ChatGPT AI Writing Assistant, 100,000 installs) tracks location data and shares with ByteDance, Amazon and others.
- Risky permissions: 3 apps have permissions with privacy impacts, including 2 with the “record audio” permission but whose speech functions were not available in-app.
- Risky inactive code functions: Almost all apps feature code with privacy impacts that lack the relevant permissions, ie location, camera, read/write storage, and access to photos and videos.
- Cash-grab apps: 9 apps take advantage of OpenAI’s currently free GPT-3 tech. 3 apps charge for access, another offers an ad-free tier.
- Fly-by-night apps: 3 apps were removed from Google Play during Top10VPN research.
iOS Apps
- Intrusive personal data collection: All 10 top-ranked ChatGPT clone apps in Apple’s App Store collect and share data with poor privacy protections.
- Logging chat content: 2 apps were observed to potentially log question and answer content.
- Device fingerprinting: 5 apps allow third-party trackers to fingerprint users’ devices.
- Phoning home: 1 app made over 300 server requests in just four minutes.
- App Store privacy label inaccuracies: 7 apps had conflicts between data collection practices outlined in their official privacy labels and the results.
- Cash-grab apps: 9 apps take advantage of OpenAI’s currently free GPT-3 tech, 8 of them charge for access – as much as $15,000 per year.
- Fly-by-night apps: 1 app was removed from the App Store during Top10VPN research.
