October 2025 is Cybersecurity Month. At KVH, we are committed to helping our customers reduce their cyber risks and improve their protection. While technology is a vital part of that process, education is invaluable as well, whether you are a crew member on a commercial vessel, a leisure boater enjoying the option to work remotely while on the water, or just trying to stay safe at home. That’s why we’re happy to share some insights and suggestions from Melanie Dias, our Senior Network and Applications Engineer.
Did you know?
The information you entered in ChatGPT today is used in the ongoing training of the model. This means that what you type or upload can be used as an answer for another person’s question, to help them create social media posts, or generate website content!
Here are a few tips for you that are highly recommended to implement while using ChatGPT or similar Chatbots:
- Try using the accountless version, but if you need to create an account, make sure you lock it down. Creating an account also gives you access to privacy settings.
- Do not create an account by using the “Sign in with Google,” “Facebook,” etc., option if you can avoid it. When you use another account to log in, it could give the apps a chance to exchange information about you. If you decide to sign in with Apple, I recommend you choose the “Hide My Email” option.
- Use a VPN to mask your IP address and encrypt your traffic.
- Never put confidential, customer, or proprietary information in ChatGPT or any other AI chatbot. This data can be stored, reviewed by developers, or used to train future models while also putting you at risk for data privacy violations.
- Avoid uploading images because they could contain metadata or contribute to facial recognition models.
- To keep your interactions more secure and private, update your settings. If you use ChatGPT, for example:
- Go to Settings → Data Controls → disable “Improve the model for everyone.”
- This prevents your prompts from being used for AI training and helps protect proprietary or confidential information (mostly).
- Go to Security → enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
- This helps ensure it’s really you logging into your account.
- Go to Settings → Data Controls → disable “Improve the model for everyone.”
- For added privacy, use the Temporary Chat feature, which ensures conversations are not saved to your history and are deleted after 30 days. The icon is on the upper right side; when enabled, you should see a checkmark in the symbol (circle).
- To delete your ChatGPT data or stop it from being used, you can submit a Personal Data Removal Request:
- Visit: https://privacy.openai.com/policies?modal=take-control
- Click on Personal Data Removal, verify your account, and fill out the necessary information.
In closing
So, while AI apps offer convenience and have some impressive capabilities, their privacy safeguards aren’t up to standards that most people would like. Please take a moment and update your settings to be as safe as you can while using these chatbots. I hope you find these tips helpful.
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