Choosing a provider
43 million messages on an open server of two AI companion apps
In autumn 2025 the server behind two AI companion chat apps turned out to be reachable without authentication: 43 million messages and 600,000 images and videos from more than 400,000 users could be read.
In AI companion apps, users chat with an invented character run by artificial intelligence, often about very personal matters. Chattee Chat and GiMe Chat are two such apps for Android and iOS, both made by the Hong Kong developer Imagime Interactive. In late August 2025 researchers at Cybernews found that one of the company's servers, which relayed messages between users and the chatbot in real time, was reachable on the internet without any authentication or access control.
Through it, more than 43 million messages and over 600,000 images and videos from more than 400,000 users were accessible. The researchers found no names or email addresses, but they did find IP addresses, unique device identifiers and purchase records: some users had spent as much as 18,000 dollars on the apps' virtual currency. According to the researchers, almost none of the content was safe for work, which could open the door to harassment or blackmail.
The researchers informed the developer on 5 September, and the server was secured by 19 September. The developer did not respond to Cybernews's requests for comment. Whether anyone malicious accessed the data is unknown; the server was already listed by search engines that index internet-connected devices, so it was easy to find. By October, according to heise online, neither app was available in Apple's or Google's app stores.
What can we learn from it?
Anyone who confides in a chat app creates written text that the provider stores and that can reach strangers through the provider's mistakes. This can come up in client work too, since many people talk to such apps. If a client mentions using one, it is worth talking it through without judgement: what they share there, and that what they write stays with the provider. The same standard applies to our own work: take identifiable client data only to a service whose storage we know.
Sources
- Malwarebytes: Millions of (very) private chats exposed by two AI companion apps
- heise online: Intimate conversations with AI chatbots were visible to everyone
- Teiss: AI girlfriend apps expose millions of private chats and images in massive data leak
This article is based on the public sources listed. If you find a mistake, write to us: [email protected]