Proton Survey Finds 66% of UK AI Users Share Sensitive Topics Despite Privacy Doubts
A Proton survey reported by TechRadar found 66% of UK AI users have discussed sensitive topics with chatbots, while 64% worry their chats could be used for profiling. Proton is promoting its privacy-first Lumo chatbot as a response.
The survey found that 42% of UK users have little or no trust in AI companies to protect private information, and 11% do not trust them at all. Despite those reservations, 55% said AI has fundamentally changed their everyday decision-making, according to Proton. The company said the contradiction reflects the appeal of a 24/7 digital confidant that does not react with surprise or embarrassment.
Personal finance was the most commonly discussed sensitive topic, at 33%, followed by work or career problems at 32%, mental health struggles at 27%, and relationship issues at 20%. Friends and family remain the preferred choice for most sensitive discussions, Proton said, but AI offers immediate and judgment-free access.
Eamonn Maguire, director of AI engineering at Proton, said: “AI is learning far more about us than a search engine ever could. We’re not just asking questions. We’re sharing deeply personal context about our health, finances and relationships. And when technology knows that much about us, privacy can't be an afterthought.”
The primary concern is broader than whether a single chat is remembered or read by human reviewers. In the UK, 64% of respondents said they are concerned their vulnerable conversations are being used to build detailed advertising or marketing profiles, while 52% worry their secrets are being fed back into machines to train future AI models.
Proton said 82% of UK users would be more likely to use an AI chatbot designed specifically around privacy, and 44% would be far more willing to share sensitive information if they had a guarantee that their chats would not be used for AI training. To address that demand, Proton offers Lumo, which it describes as a privacy-first alternative to ChatGPT built with the same end-to-end encryption ethos as its email client. Proton also launched AI Paper Trail, a Lumo tool that shows how much personal information an average AI conversation can reveal.
Maguire added: “People have already decided that AI is useful enough to hear their money worries, doubts and everyday concerns. They are handing AI companies their inner lives and biggest secrets on the assumption that they will protect them when it's actually the opposite. AI's business model depends on learning from them.”