September 28, 2023

Users of Google Bard are reporting that their conversations with Bard are being indexed and appearing in Google search results. This appears to be unintentional, as Google only intends to allow users to create a public link to share conversations with others. Anyone with this link can see the conversation, but Google appears to be indexing them.

Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan has confirmed that Google is working on blocking shared Bard chats from being indexed. However, at press time, users could still replicate the error by typing site:bard.google.com/share on the Google search bar.

This raises concerns about the privacy of Bard users, as their conversations could potentially be seen by anyone who knows the public link to the conversation. Although, Bard itself advises users not to share personally identifiable information with it, as Google may collect and store your chats, and may use them to improve Bard’s performance or for other purposes.

Google has not yet provided a timeline for when the issue will be resolved, but users who are concerned that their Bard chats may be indexed in search results can check their Settings by going to Bard’s site, clicking on Settings, and then selecting Your Public Links. This will show and let users manage all the public links they’ve created.

The sources for this piece include an article in ZDNET.