Chatbots have quickly evolved into a necessity amongst businesses. From offering 24/7 customer support to automating repetitive tasks, they’ve transformed the way companies communicate with customers. But so too, behind the convenience and innovation, are a set of risks that can’t be ignored.
This post highlights some of the critical dangers of chatbots, including threats to data privacy, security gaps, misinformation, and the ramifications of allowing ourselves to become too dependent on this technology. Awareness of these challenges enables companies to proactively protect themselves when they use chatbots.
Data Privacy Risks
Data privacy is undoubtedly one of the major concerns for any business deploying chatbot technology. Chatbots frequently collect and retain personal information about customers including names, emails, phone numbers and sometime even payment information.
The Way Data Is Scrapped and Stored by Chatbots
Chatbots are used to provide a better experience for the user and, for that, needs information to personalize responses and customers support. For instance:
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A retail chatbot might ask for your size and taste in styles to recommend items.
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A health care chatbot can gather symptoms and offer an initial path forward.
This data is generally retained and analyzed by the AI systems in order to help them in future interactions. But the more data a chatbot gathers, the greater the potential for mishandling or stealing that data.
What Could Go Wrong
The implications of not having good data protection policy is pretty severe:
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Data Breach: Hackers may attack the chatbot system to get hold of the sensitive data. A headline-grabbing leak of customer data has the potential to do reputational and financial harm to a business.
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Undesired Data Sharing: The greedy regulation practices can get customer data shared without his/her permission to any irrelevant 3rd party.
How to Mitigate These Risks
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Enforce strict data protection mechanisms such as data encryption of stored and transmitted data.
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Conduct periodic checks of chatbot systems to make sure they’re compliant with applicable privacy regulations, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
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Only collect data necessary for the operation of chatbot.
Security Vulnerabilities
Though chatbots are built to make life easier, they can also serve as an avenue for cyberattacks. Security exposure of chatbot systems pose risks for users and corporations.
Chatbot Security Vulnerabilities
There are two fundamental types of most exploitable weaknesses of chatbot systems:
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Injection Attacks
Identity thieves can send code snippets that bot owners will unwittingly accept. That could allow hackers to scrape sensitive information or tamper with the chatbot’s replies. -
Scam Management Via Chatbots
Chatbots’ impersonation: Hackers pretend to be official chatbots, to fool users into giving away personal or financial information.
Real-World Examples
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Tay and Offensive Content
In 2016 Microsoft launched a chatbot called Tay that quickly began making racist and crude tweets after being influenced by users within 24 hours. This was a demonstration of the risks of unsecured chatbot algorithms. -
E-Skimming Risks
Chat bots integrated on e-commerce platforms have become the latest victims of bad actors attempting to steal payment information.
Chatbot Security – Tips to Enhance It
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Add robust authentication processes to confirm the identities of users.
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Perform penetration testing regularly to find and fix vulnerabilities.
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Provide chatbots with machine learning tools that can detect and terminate potentially malicious activities.
Misinformation and Manipulation
The utility of chatbots is restricted by a simple truth: What you get out of them is only as good as what you put in. Regrettably, this also makes them an easy target for misinformation, whether it is deliberate or inadvertent.
How Chatbots Can Spread Fake News
Contemporary chatbots, particularly AI-driven chatbots, normally use extremely large datasets to produce responses. If the data on which they have been trained are biased — or simply wrong — they can inadvertently pass that along to users. Furthermore:
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Thus limiting customers chatting with the chatbot prior to asking their question. You can control a Chatbot to give answers that mislead!
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Bad actors could program bots to disseminate propaganda or sow confusion in pivotal moments like elections.
Why This Is a Growing Concern
The level of trust that users have in chatbots is troubling for a number of reasons:
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Most users do not (and should not) challenge the veracity of a chatbot’s answers, accepting them as true.
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The spread of misinformation via chatbots has far-reaching implications from businesses to society.
Minimizing the Spread of Misinformation
Businesses that believe they are at risk of misinformation can:
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Teaching chatbots from credible and reliable repositories.
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Providing chatbot systems with the latest info and ensuring that info is accurate.
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Advise on best practices to clarify to users caveats about response produced by chatbot.
Dependency and Deskilling
Sure, chatbots are efficient, but the problem here isn’t just with businesses — it can affect employees, too.
The Limitations to So Much Dependence on Chatbots
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Loss of Human Touch
An automated system may not always offer personal attention and endearment, which can be found only in human interactions. For example, a chatbot might not be able to properly respond to sensitive questions, thereby making customers feel annoyed or discouraged. -
Deskilling of Employees
When people come to rely heavily on automation to do routine tasks, they can lose track of important skills. Eventually, they might be deskilling their way out of career progression and future adaptability.
Striking the Right Balance Between Automations and Human Work
Businesses need to find the right mix, while chatbots are helpful:
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Deploy bot to handle the routine questions and include agents for complex and sensitive inquiries.
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Constantly train the employees on the basics, also assisting in training them to be job adaptable.
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Facilitate cooperation between humans and chatbots for better results.
Steps to Manage Your Chatbot Risk Today
The benefits of chatbots are clear – they’re quick, efficient and keep your audience happy – but the problem is, chatbots can sometimes backfire in spectacular fashion. Whether it’s protecting data privacy, managing security threats to the risk of unethical misinformation, companies need to use chatbot tech responsibly.
Proactively seeking out solutions to these risks ensures your chatbots are an asset, and not a liability, to your business. By pausing to take a quick look at your chatbot’s open rate and exposure, your company can minimize instances of overkill and increase customer satisfaction through AI that customers can trust and respect.
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