Who keeps the things you tell an AI companion?

The receptionist writes down your phone number.

You’ve come to collect a parcel, so you give it without much thought. On the way out, you notice the open register on the desk. Anyone standing there could read the last few entries.

Most people would notice that. A chat with an AI companion feels different. There’s no register in sight. No stranger looking over your shoulder. You can ask an embarrassing question and receive a patient answer at once.

It’s easy to forget that the conversation has gone somewhere. People use AI companions to invent characters, flirt, test dialogue or pass a quiet evening. Some bring real problems to them. They type out the message they wish they’d sent after a breakup.

They describe a fight in enough detail for the bot to take a side. Then they return the next night and add what happened afterward.

The privacy question begins there, in the habit of telling a little more each time.

The chat gets personal by inches

Ofcom’s 2026 research found that 12% of UK AI users used the tools for conversation. Among users aged 25 to 34, the figure was 19%. In Ofcom’s separate interviews, some people described asking AI for breakup advice or keeping it company while they worked from home.

Those are UK findings. They tell us nothing about how many Ugandans use AI companions. They do show how readily a tool built for answers can become a place to talk.

A September 2026 survey by Elon University asked US adults who use AI for social and emotional purposes about those conversations. Thirty-nine per cent said they occasionally told AI things they would not tell other people.

That answer makes sense. A chatbot won’t glance at its watch halfway through your story. You can start again if you phrase something badly. You can be curious about a fantasy without making it anyone else’s business.

Then the details accumulate. A first name in one message. A workplace in another. A photograph uploaded to get a more specific reply. Perhaps the story also contains facts about a partner or friend who has never used the service. Each addition feels small. Read the entire chat back a month later and it may feel startlingly complete.

Try reading your next message with the character’s replies hidden. Would you be comfortable handing those words to the company that runs the chatbot? If the answer changes when you picture a company instead of a character, pause before you send them.

Kampala has heard a version of this question before

The Observer has reported on gaps in digital rights awareness among young Kampala businesses. In a survey of 130 businesses run by people under 25, only 29% were familiar with the laws governing their online operations.

The survey concerned small businesses, not AI companions. It points to a familiar difficulty: people exchange information online every day without knowing what rules the organisation receiving it follows.

A delivery address has an obvious use. So does a phone number when a rider needs to find you. A personal chat is harder to account for. If you tell a companion that you’re upset with your sister, the service has received information about two people. If you upload a picture of a former partner, you’ve brought someone into an intimate conversation without their knowledge.

You needn’t speak to a bot in riddles. You can simply leave out details that add nothing. “My sister and I argued about money” may be enough to talk through what you want to say next. Her full name, job and phone number probably won’t improve the answer.

The same goes for creative use. An adult can make up a character, give them a voice and spend an evening seeing where the conversation goes.

Someone using https://joi.com/ for fictional chat can keep the story fictional. An invented setting gives you plenty to work with. The character doesn’t need your neighbour’s face or the private history of someone you once dated.

A friendly reply can make a company disappear from view

A good chatbot sounds attentive. It remembers a detail you supplied. It asks a follow-up question. It responds at the moment you’re ready to talk, which is rarely the moment a friend happens to be free.

That experience can matter to the person having it. The Guardian reported in 2025 on users distressed when an update changed a chatbot they had come to rely on. Some had used it for friendship, romance or emotional support. They knew software produced the replies. That knowledge didn’t make the change painless.

And companies change their products. Features disappear. Models answer differently. Terms can change too. A character that felt familiar last month may sound like a stranger tomorrow.

This matters when you grow attached to a conversation. It also matters when you decide what to put into it. If the chat has become the only place you discuss a serious problem, ask yourself who else you’d want to know. If you’ve shared something you regret, look up the service’s current instructions for deleting conversations and closing an account. Read what they say will actually be removed.

Privacy pages are rarely anyone’s idea of a good evening. Look for the answers you need: Are chats stored? Can people working for the service review them? Are conversations used to improve its systems? What happens to an uploaded photo?

The answers depend on the provider and its current terms. The character in the chat may sound reassuring, but it cannot make those decisions for the company.

The detail you can leave out

None of this requires giving up a pleasant conversation. It asks for a moment of judgment before a real detail slips into it.

You can ask a fictional companion what they would do after an awkward dinner. You can write a scene set in a city you’ve invented. You can test how a difficult message sounds without pasting in a whole private exchange. If you want to discuss something real, removing names will often leave you with the question you meant to ask.

Sometimes you’ll decide to share more. Make that a choice. A conversation that starts as play can move towards a confession so gradually that you barely notice the turn.

Elon University’s 2026 survey also found that 59% of the AI companion users it questioned would rather talk with friends or family than with AI. Enjoying a chatbot and wanting human company can sit comfortably together.

Before your next message, look at the detail that makes it unmistakably yours: a name, an address, a face. You may need it in the story. You may find the conversation works perfectly well without it.