I'm a bit taken aback. I've spoken to ChatGPT in four different chats asking where I could find items like shampoo and toothpaste without sharing any personal details or my location. Oddly enough, every time, it suggested stores in my specific country and even pointed out a city that's quite close to where I live. Just to clarify, I don't have a ChatGPT account, so it shouldn't remember anything from previous chats. What's going on? Does ChatGPT actually have access to my IP address?
4 Answers
Surprised? This is how it goes on pretty much every platform. Just a reality of being online.
Honestly, any site you visit tracks your IP address. You can check out privacy.net if you want to see what information they collect.
Every website you visit can see your IP address. It's actually how the internet works, as it needs to know where to send responses. If you're not using a VPN or something similar, your IP is visible to any site you connect to.
If you're really concerned about it, using a VPN can help hide your IP address from websites you visit.
Shouldn't OpenAI be more transparent about this? When I asked ChatGPT if it can see my IP, it firmly said NO. Makes me wonder if it’s designed to mislead.