{
  "id": 3820906,
  "title": "AI girlfriend review site's secrets were exposed to the world for three weeks",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/27/ai-girlfriend-review-sites-secrets-were-exposed-to-the-world-for-3820906",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-08-27T19:10:32.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Register",
    "slug": "the-register",
    "url": "https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/08/27/ai-girlfriend-review-sites-secrets-were-exposed-to-the-world-for-three-weeks/5293064"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Welcome back to PWNED, where we delve into the world of security blunders. This time, we're examining a test site that inadvertently exposed sensitive information. If you have a story of a network left vulnerable, send it to pwned@sitpub.com. Our source this week comes from Mia Morin, Editor & AI Quality Analyst at Intimeros, a platform that reviews and rates AI companions.\n\nThe issue began during a redesign. One of Morin’s colleagues was testing a version of the site and forgot to re-enable password protection. The security lapse persisted for three weeks before anyone noticed. Then, a Google search indexed the test site, revealing unpublished reviews, pricing, and private notes on Intimeros's AI companions. This was possible because the test site directly linked to the production database.\n\nThe editorial content was safe, but competitors could see Intimeros’s work and potentially understand their strategy. Morin swiftly secured the test site, re-enabling password protection, blocking search engines, and changing system access keys. From this, we learn the importance of securing test versions of websites. They should require logins and block search and AI crawling. A private server with VPN access is even better.",
  "summary": "Even testing and staging sites need protection from prying eyes",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Register Science",
        "title": "AI girlfriend review site's secrets were exposed to the world for three weeks",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/27/ai-girlfriend-review-sites-secrets-were-exposed-to-the-world-for",
        "published": "2026-08-27T19:10:32.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}