Fighting the New York Times' invasion of user privacy

From the FAQ:

> Q: Is the NYT obligated to keep this data private?

> A: Yes. The Times would be legally obligated at this time to not make any data public outside the court process.

The NY Times has built over a century a reputation for fiercely protecting its confidential sources. Why are they somehow less trustworthy than OpenAI is?

If the NY Times leaked the customer information to a third party, they'd be in contempt of court. On the other hand, OpenAI is bound only by their terms of service with its customers, which they can modify as they please.

I generally agree, but publicizing the data is only a small part of the risk. The NYT could use the data for journalism research, then perform parallel construction of it for the public news article:

For example, if they find Mayor X asking ChatGPT about fraud, porn, DUI, cancer diagnoses, murder, etc. - maybe even mentioning names, places, etc. - they could then investigate that issue, find other evidence, and publish that.

First, the logs are supposed to be anonymized before being sent over. Second, the court can order the company's lawyers to "firewall" the logs from the newsroom so that their journalists can't get access to it, under penalty of contempt and potential disbarment.