AI-generated editorial illustration; not a documentary photograph.
A Proton survey published September 24, 2026, found that 66% of 4,014 current AI chatbot users had discussed at least one sensitive subject with a chatbot. Yet only 11% to 20% reported high trust in AI companies to protect private information, exposing a gap between how people use these services and how much confidence they place in their providers.
Sensitive Conversations Are Common
The online survey covered chatbot users in France, Germany, the UK and the US. Personal finances, mental health and career problems were the most frequently reported sensitive subjects, although the leading topic varied by country. Americans reported the highest overall disclosure rate at 68.4%, compared with 60.3% in France.
Convenience Outweighs Confidence
Respondents still preferred friends and family over chatbots, therapists and religious advisers for every sensitive category in the survey. Chatbots nevertheless approached human contacts for practical subjects such as money and work. Convenience and freedom from judgment were the main reasons people chose AI for sensitive discussions, while privacy ranked lower as an initial motivation.
Concerns also depended on how conversation data might be used. Respondents were more worried about chats contributing to advertising profiles than to AI model training. In the US, 65.3% expressed concern about ad profiling, while 57.6% were concerned about model training.
Privacy Commitments Could Shift Use
More than 70% of respondents said they would be more likely to use a chatbot designed around privacy, ranging from 71.1% in Germany to 82% in the UK. Across the four countries, reported levels of low trust in AI companies ranged from 38.8% in the US to 47.7% in France.
Self-Reported and Geographically Limited
The findings measure reported attitudes and past behavior rather than observed chatbot conversations. Proton did not independently verify what participants had disclosed. Because the sample included only existing chatbot users in four countries, the results cannot be generalized to non-users or other markets. Respondents were not told which company commissioned the approximately 12-question survey.
Source: Survey: People don’t trust AI, but they tell it everything
SIGNAL TITANS
Leave a Reply