{"ID":2895016,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10695","arxiv_id":"2507.10695","title":"Exploring User Security and Privacy Attitudes and Concerns Toward the Use of General-Purpose LLM Chatbots for Mental Health","abstract":"Individuals are increasingly relying on large language model (LLM)-enabled conversational agents for emotional support. While prior research has examined privacy and security issues in chatbots specifically designed for mental health purposes, these chatbots are overwhelmingly \"rule-based\" offerings that do not leverage generative AI. Little empirical research currently measures users' privacy and security concerns, attitudes, and expectations when using general-purpose LLM-enabled chatbots to manage and improve mental health. Through 21 semi-structured interviews with U.S. participants, we identified critical misconceptions and a general lack of risk awareness. Participants conflated the human-like empathy exhibited by LLMs with human-like accountability and mistakenly believed that their interactions with these chatbots were safeguarded by the same regulations (e.g., HIPAA) as disclosures with a licensed therapist. We introduce the concept of \"intangible vulnerability,\" where emotional or psychological disclosures are undervalued compared to more tangible forms of information (e.g., financial or location-based data). To address this, we propose recommendations to safeguard user mental health disclosures with general-purpose LLM-enabled chatbots more effectively.","short_abstract":"Individuals are increasingly relying on large language model (LLM)-enabled conversational agents for emotional support. While prior research has examined privacy and security issues in chatbots specifically designed for mental health purposes, these chatbots are overwhelmingly \"rule-based\" offerings that do not leverag...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10695","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.10695v1","authors":"[\"Jabari Kwesi\",\"Jiaxun Cao\",\"Riya Manchanda\",\"Pardis Emami-Naeini\"]","published":"2025-07-14T18:10:21Z","proceeding":"cs.CY","tasks":"[\"cs.CY\",\"cs.AI\",\"cs.CR\",\"cs.ET\",\"cs.HC\"]","methods":"[\"Large Language Model\",\"Language Model\"]","has_code":false}