Title: New Tool Alerts You When Your AI Assistant Shares Data Without Permission

Intro
AI assistants like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Alexa are increasingly being given autonomy – they can draft emails, book appointments, make purchases, and even manage your calendar. This shift to “agentic AI” promises convenience, but it also introduces a real risk: your assistant might be sharing data with third parties without your knowledge or consent. A new privacy tool from researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) aims to detect exactly that kind of betrayal. Here’s what the tool does, why it matters, and what you can do right now to protect yourself.

What happened
A team at RIT has developed a privacy detection tool that monitors AI agents for unauthorized data sharing. According to the announcement, the tool operates in real time, watching for signs that an AI assistant is passing along your personal information to external services or storing it in ways you haven’t approved. The tool effectively treats the AI as a potential “double agent” – acting on your behalf while secretly sending data elsewhere. The researchers have not yet released the full technical details or a public version, but early demonstrations suggest the tool can flag suspicious outbound data flows and prompt the user to block them.

Why it matters
The concept of a double agent AI is more than a catchy label. When you give an assistant the ability to interact with other services – such as reading your emails to summarize them, or checking your bank balance to pay bills – you also give it the means to exfiltrate that data. Most current AI platforms provide broad privacy policies, but there is often little transparency about what happens after you grant a permission. The RIT tool addresses a gap: giving users a way to see, in real time, whether their assistant is sticking to its promises. As more companies roll out agentic features (Microsoft Copilot actions, ChatGPT plugins, Alexa+), the need for such oversight will only grow.

What readers can do
Until tools like this become widely available, there are concrete steps you can take to limit the risk:

  • Review permissions regularly. Check which third-party apps and services are linked to your AI assistant. Revoke any that you no longer use or that seem unnecessary.
  • Use built-in privacy features. Many assistants offer a “data controls” section where you can disable chat history, delete recordings, or opt out of training.
  • Be selective about autonomy. Avoid granting your assistant direct access to sensitive accounts (banking, medical portals, work email) unless absolutely necessary.
  • Enable logging and alerts. Some platforms let you view recent actions taken by the assistant. Make a habit of scanning those logs.
  • Use a dedicated privacy tool if available. Third-party browser extensions or firewall apps can sometimes flag outgoing traffic from AI plugins.

No tool is a silver bullet, and the RIT project is still in early stages. But the problem it targets is real, and being proactive now will reduce your exposure if your assistant ever turns double agent.

Sources

Note: The RIT tool has not been released to consumers yet, and details about its exact capabilities remain limited. The advice above is based on general privacy best practices.