Why are the files in ChatGPT shared projects visible to members? Because this is the design of the shared project. OpenAI's project help page is straightforward: once a project is shared, members can see the chats, files, and instructions in the project, and even download the files added to the project. That is, if you put data in a shared project, don't assume that it is private. The official documentation is here: Projects in ChatGPT.
Tell if you're sharing a project or a single chat
Project sharing and single chat sharing are not the same thing. Sharing a project takes the whole context out, and sharing a chat alone only makes that conversation visible to others. OpenAI has also made it clear that chat, documents, and instructions in the project will participate in answering together; So if you only want others to see the results and don't want them to see the source, it's usually more appropriate to share with a single chat.
If you want to control the visible range
- Keep sensitive information in personal projects, not shared projects.
- Check member permissions before sharing, distinguishing between edit and chat.
- Share only individual chats and don't open the entire project to others.
Many people think of shared projects as "private folders for multiplayer collaboration", but it's actually more like a workbench that can be read by multiple people. As long as members come in, they have a chance to see the relevant content.
