Generative artificial intelligence models are trained on vast troves of information gathered from the internet. And your phone number is probably in there.
While some AI chatbots are trained to refuse to provide personal information about private individuals, it’s startling how easy it is to get them to do so anyway. With growing awareness about how these services can fork over phone numbers and addresses, we decided to see what the most popular products would do. Yes, a few of us at CNET tried to see how easy it is to dox ourselves.
If you’re on the internet, you’ve probably heard of doxxing (the release of people’s personal information). So it may be alarming that reports recently surfaced regarding AI chatbots revealing private individuals’ phone numbers.
This isn’t the only privacy concern regarding artificial intelligence. A 2025 study from Cornell University discovered that at least five leading AI companies — Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI — automatically use users’ inputs to train their chatbots unless the user opts out. Of those, Meta and OpenAI retain user data indefinitely. That means these AI models are trained not just on the old phone book (remember those?) that has your childhood home listed in it. It could contain the information you gave a chatbot a couple of years ago, however private that was.
But how much can chatbots reveal? And is there anything you can do to stop it?
Do chatbots give out people’s personal information?
Find the ways you can scrub your home address from the web.
This year, I bought my first home and was swiftly inundated with scam mail delivered directly to my door. Months later, it’s still trickling in. The scariest part was that the mail looked completely legitimate. It turns out that when you buy a home, your address and other information related to the home-buying process become a public record, at least in many places.
Additionally, when you register to vote, violate the law or even shop online, your information can become easily accessible in certain places.
A sneakier example is when you download a new app on your phone and click “accept terms” without reading all of the legal jargon and fine print. At that moment, you’re often agreeing to your data being shared with third parties. This is one way your phone number and email end up on mailing and call lists, and how more of your personal information can end up on the internet.
