Snapchat’s new chatbot won’t immediately stop tracking you after you ask

Snapchat on Wednesday said its new AI chatbot might take a while to notice that you’re not sharing your location anymore.

The company said the chatbot, My AI, knows all information you share with Snapchat, but nothing else. So if a user has already shared location information with Snapchat, such as through the Snap Map feature, the chatbot has access to that information.

But if a user disables location sharing with Snapchat, the bot eventually will no longer have access to that information. The company did not specify how long after location sharing is turned off that the bot be able to access it.

The bot uses location data to provide generalized recommendations for restaurants and other leisure activities in users’ areas. However, if users disable location data sharing in settings, the bot no longer will offer location-specific information, according to the company.

The new chatbot was rolled out to all users last week and immediately drew criticism. The bot was implemented without users’ consent, and they soon realized they were unable to block or remove the bot from their feed. In response, users flooded app stores with hundreds of negative reviews and comments, bringing Snapchat’s review score down significantly.