Sharing a chat makes a public page, not a private link

Start here

Sharing a single AI conversation feels like sending a private link to one person, the way sharing a document link might. The help pages describe something closer to publishing a page: once created, the link is not restricted to the person it was sent to, and for a period in 2025 one vendor's shared links could also turn up in ordinary search results.

What the documents say

OpenAI's shared links help page, as retrieved on 16 September 2026, states that a personal-account link is 'available to anyone who has the link,' such links 'are anonymous by default,' and directly answers a natural question: shared link pages are 'not intended for search-engine indexing, but this does not make a link private. Anyone who can access a link can also forward it.' Google's Gemini sharing help page describes the same shape for its own product: 'when you share a chat, it creates a public link to that chat. Anyone with the link can read the chat, even if you didn't share the link with them directly.' Separately, in July 2025, OpenAI briefly offered a setting letting a shared conversation be indexed by search engines, rather than merely reachable by direct link; a security-industry report attributes to OpenAI's security chief, Dane Stuckey, a statement that the feature created 'too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they didn't intend to,' after which the company removed it. That statement reaches us only through that report, so it is presented as reported rather than verified first-hand.

Check this

The mechanism to test before sharing anything is what not intended for indexing actually promises: it is not the same as private. A reader can check this by opening their shared-link list in account settings, as both help pages describe, and confirming a link created months ago still resolves, since neither vendor documents an automatic expiration. The 2025 episode adds a second check: a setting that changes discoverability is separate from the sharing action itself, and a person should look for whether one exists before assuming a link is only as findable as the recipients they chose.

What holds and what fails

What holds is the core model both vendors document: a shared link is a public artifact reachable by anyone who obtains it, and deleting it later stops new access without reaching every copy a recipient already saved, which OpenAI's FAQ states directly. What the 2025 episode shows failing is the assumption that shareable and searchable are the same boundary; they were not, briefly, until public reaction reportedly led the company to remove the setting. That removal is documented here only through third-party reporting, so treat the attributed quote as reported, not confirmed by us.

• Open your account's shared-link list today and delete any you no longer need active.
• Before sharing, check whether names or sensitive details appear anywhere in the conversation.
• Look for a discoverability or indexing setting separate from the basic share action.

A shared link is closer to a quietly published web page than a private note. Reading it that way, before clicking share, is the more accurate model.