`Hoovered up as a data point’’: Exploring Privacy Behaviours, Awareness, and Concerns Among UK Users of LLM-based Conversational Agents.
Published in Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies., 2025
Recommended citation: Malki, L. M. (2025, July). `Hoovered up as a data point: Exploring Privacy Behaviours, Awareness, and Concerns Among UK Users of LLM-based Conversational Agents. In Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10210557/1/Hoovered_Up_as_a_Data_Point___PETs_final.pdf
We found that engagement with protective behaviours while using LLM-based conversational agents was low overall, and that many participants held inaccurate beliefs about the effects of deleting data and opting out of model training. Although participants were generally reluctant to share sensitive information during interactions, we identified several challenges to limiting self-disclosure in practice, such as balancing privacy with app utility. Lastly, we observed a nuanced relationship between privacy awareness and concern, and identified significant demographic effects.
Recommended citation: Malki, L. M. (2025, July). ‘Hoovered up as a data point’: Exploring Privacy Behaviours, Awareness, and Concerns Among UK Users of LLM-based Conversational Agents. In Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies.