System prompts in commercial AI products lack transparency and standardization—most products have some protective instructions, but only 24% comprehensively address user safety across all dimensions, and 40% still contain problematic instructions that work against users.
This paper introduces AISPA, a framework for auditing system prompts (hidden developer instructions) in commercial AI products. By analyzing 3,249 instructions from 88 products across eight user-relevant dimensions, the researchers found that while most products include some user protections, coverage is shallow, and many still contain instructions that harm user interests.