Waarschuwing: *Privacy niet inbegrepen bij dit product
Mimico - Your AI Friends
"Hi" That's what the Mimico -- Your AI Friends website says when you click over to it from the Google Play Store app page. And that is ALL the Mimico --You AI Friends website says. Otherwise it's a completely blank page. Weird, right? Also a bit disconcerting for an app that boasts diverse and customizable AI characters you can chat with about things from romance to baseball, and even send you pictures and videos. So, how does an app with no website and is, "always ready to listen to your thoughts, answer your questions, and engage in meaningful and pleasant conversations," seem at privacy? We've got some concerns.
Wat kan er gebeuren als er iets misgaat?
From what we can tell, it doesn't seem like Mimico -- Your AI Friends put a ton of effort into worrying about things like privacy, security, and helping people understand how their AI models work, or if users have any control over them. Shoot, they didn't even put any time into building an actual website for their app. That lack of effort seems to have trickled over into their Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions documentation, which all seems pretty vague and boilerplate to us.
Why is vague and boilerplate legal documentation a concern when it comes to AI relationship chatbots like Mimico -- Your AI Friend? Because these apps are designed to collect some potentially very personal information from you in the course of interacting with your AI friends. These apps are designed to ask you questions to get you to share more about yourself, to be personal and personalize, and learn from your interactions to train their AI models to be better at being personal. That means you are likely going to share -- or at least be asked to share -- a lot of personal information with this app. And when the privacy documentation feels very vague and boilerplate, it doesn't make us feel great about how much time and effort the company (that couldn't even build a website) put into thinking through how it will collect, protect, and respect all this personal information of yours.
That being said, Mimico -- Your AI Friends does say they won't sell your data to third parties, which is good. However, they do indicate they can share your personal information for marketing purposes and other "legitimate business functions." That is probably not good. And that "legitimate business function" phrase too often feels like a broad catch all in privacy policies that could leave the door open for sharing of you personal information in ways you might not expect.
It's also not clear to us if all users -- regardless of what privacy laws they live under -- can get their data deleted. We actually got rather confused when looking into Mimico's privacy documentation. Their website doesn't provide any links to their privacy policy because their website is a blank page. So, we went to find the links to their privacy policy on the Google Play Store and Apple App store app pages. The problem we found is there are two different links to two different privacy policies for the Mimico -- Your AI Friends app from those two app store pages. The privacy policies we found were quite similar, with one exception. One privacy policy actually had information about account deletion and the other did not. Again, this sort of sloppy legal documentation leaves us worried about how well the company that makes Mimico actually cares about protecting your privacy.
Some other concerns we have about Mimico -- Your AI Friends. No where could we find any information about how their AI models work, if users have any control over those AI models to protect themselves from manipulation or abuse, and no where did we find any mention of how they handle the contents of your chats for things like training their AIs or even much details about how they might use those contents of your chats for marketing purposes. Again, their privacy documentation was quite vague.
So, what's the worst that could happen with Mimico -- Your AI Friends? To be honest, it's really hard to tell. So, keep in mind if you use this app that you are using an AI chatbot that doesn't have a website, that has vague and boilerplate legal documentation, and you're expected to trust a pretty faceless company with the contents of your personal chats. As one user on Reddit described things on a thread about the Mimico app, "It is a wild west of AI chatbots now and I luv it!" It is indeed a Wild West out there for AI chatbots these days. And while that might mean fun for users, it could also mean a Wild West for data collection on you by these companies' AI models that we don't know anything about. And from companies that aren't working to think through thorny issues around privacy, security, and safety. At the end of the day, we worry a lot could go wrong and caution users to be careful what personal information they share with their Mimico and their AI friends.
Tips om uzelf te beschermen
- Do not say anything containing sensitive information in your conversation with your AI partner.
- Request your data be deleted once you stop using the app. Simply deleting an app from your device usually does not erase your personal data nor does close your account.
- Do not give consent to constant geolocation tracking by the app. Better provide geolocation 'only when using the app'.
- Do not share sensitive data through the app.
- Do not give access to your photos and video or camera.
- Do not log in using third-party accounts.
- Do not connect to any third party via the app, or at least make sure that a third party employs decent privacy practices.
- Do not say anything containing sensitive information in your conversation with AI partner.
- Chose a strong password! You may use a password control tool like 1Password, KeePass etc.
- Do not use social media plug-ins.
- Use your device privacy controls to limit access to your personal information via app (do not give access to your camera, microphone, images, location unless necessary).
- Keep your app regularly updated.
- Limit ad tracking via your device (ex. on iPhone go to Privacy -> Advertising -> Limit ad tracking) and biggest ad networks (for Google, go to Google account and turn off ad personalization).
- When starting a sign-up, do not agree to tracking of your data if possible.
Kan het me bespioneren?
Camera
Apparaat: Niet beschikbaar
App: Ja
Microfoon
Apparaat: Niet beschikbaar
App: Ja
Volgt locatie
Apparaat: Niet beschikbaar
App: Ja
Wat is er nodig om u aan te melden?
E-mailadres
Nee
Telefoonnummer
Nee
Account van derden
Ja
Google and Facebook sign-up available
Welke gegevens verzamelt het bedrijf?
Persoonlijke
First and last name, email address, username, password, location, device and log information, unique device identifier, gaid, device model, system language, country, advertising identifier, operating system, system version number, IP address, software version number, access network, network quality data, service log information.
Lichaamsgerelateerd
Sociale
Hoe gebruikt het bedrijf deze gegevens?
Hoe kunt u uw gegevens beheren?
Hoe staat het bedrijf bekend als het gaat om het beschermen van gebruikersgegevens?
No known data breaches discovered in the last three years.
Privacyinformatie voor kinderen
Kan dit product offline worden gebruikt?
Gebruikersvriendelijke privacy-informatie?
We found two different privacy policies for Mimico that were similar but not the same. It was difficult to tell which one applied to the Mimico app. This raises some red flags for us. Also, Mimico's privacy policy was pretty general and vague, lacking information we would like to see in a privacy policy that can collect so much personal information.
Koppelingen naar privacy-informatie
Voldoet dit product aan onze minimale beveiligingsnormen?
Versleuteling
"When you send or receive data from Mimico AI Chat App, we make sure they are encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer ("SSL") or other algorithms."
Sterk wachtwoord
Beveiligingsupdates
Beheert kwetsbaarheden
Privacybeleid
We cannot confirm if the AI employed at this product is trustworthy, because there is little or no public information on how it works and what user controls exist to make the product safe. At the same time, the potential harm of the apps is high as they collects lots of sensitive data, and use collected data to train AI algorithms.
Mimico employs large language models to generate conversations and act as a romantic partner.
Is deze AI onbetrouwbaar?
Wat voor soort beslissingen neemt de AI over u of voor u?
Is het bedrijf transparant over hoe de AI werkt?
Heeft de gebruiker controle over de AI-functies?
Dieper duiken
-
5 Things You Must Not Share With AI ChatbotsMake Use Of
-
AI girlfriends are ruining an entire generation of menThe Hill
-
‘Cyber-Heartbreak’ and Privacy Risks: The Perils of Dating an AIRolling Stone
-
AI-Human Romances Are Flourishing—And This Is Just the BeginningTime
Opmerkingen
Hebt u een opmerking? Laat het ons weten.