AI Privacy Concerns Explained: What Chatbots Do With Data

When you talk to an AI, you’re not just getting an answer. You’re also handing over data. That data might include work details, client info, health issues, or money problems. All of this can be very personal.

Let’s define a few key terms so we’re on the same page:

• AI privacy means how well an AI service protects the information you share with it.

• Training data is the information companies feed into their models so they get smarter over time.

• A private AI chatbot is an assistant that doesn’t use your chats to train its models and often stores less data.

• Zero-access encryption means your data is stored in a way that only you can read it, not even the service provider.

Most big AI systems collect and store your conversations by default. Many also use them to improve their models unless you change settings or pay for enterprise plans.

That creates real AI privacy concerns:

• A lawyer pastes parts of a contract into a chatbot and those words end up in training data.

• An employee shares roadmap ideas, and the AI company stores them for years.

• Someone talks about health issues in detail and those chats sit on a server.

The goal of this article is simple: help you keep using AI, but with a clear view of the risks and the tools that protect you.

Understanding AI Privacy Risks: What Happens to Your Conversations

When you send a message to an AI, a few things usually happen behind the scenes.

Where Your Data Actually Goes

Your chat can flow through several layers:

• Training systems: Many services use your chats to improve their models unless you opt out.

• Server logs: Conversations often stay on company servers for weeks or months, sometimes years, even if they are not used for training.

• Human review: Staff or contractors may read some chats to check for abuse and improve safety systems.

• Legal requests: Governments or courts can request stored data if they have the right legal basis.

The Default Settings Problem

Most major platforms start with settings that benefit the company, not you:

• ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and others use your conversations for training by default on consumer plans, unless you turn it off.

• Anthropic’s Claude changed its rules in 2025 so user chats can be kept for up to five years if you allow training.

You usually need to dig into settings pages or privacy portals to opt out. Many people never do.

Real-World Impact

These ai privacy concerns can show up in everyday life:

• Work: You paste internal strategy, customer lists, or unreleased ideas into a chatbot.

• Professional roles: You’re a doctor, lawyer, HR manager, or therapist and you describe real people.

• Personal life: You share exact dates, names, medical details, or financial numbers.

Each of these increases your risk if the service keeps or trains on that data.

Ads + targeting = new AI privacy risks

OpenAI has started testing ads in ChatGPT for free and “Go” tiers in the US, with ads shown at the bottom of a conversation and targeted to the topic being discussed. Users can dismiss ads, see why they’re being shown, and turn off personalization to reduce targeted ads. OpenAI also says it won’t sell users’ data to advertisers and that ads won’t influence answers (“answer independence”).​

Why this matters for AI privacy concerns

Even when a company says it won’t sell your data, ad systems still create incentives to build detailed profiles. If a chatbot can see what you ask about at work, what you worry about personally, and what you research late at night, that context can become a powerful targeting signal.​

AI chats can reveal intent more clearly than web browsing. In practice, this can lead to very precise targeting based on conversation topics, session context, and any “memory” or personalization features you’ve enabled.​

Why it won’t be limited to ChatGPT

Once one major assistant proves ads work, others will likely copy the model because running large AI systems is expensive and subscriptions don’t cover all users. So the broader AI privacy risks aren’t just “does this model train on my chats,” but also “could my chats shape what I’m marketed to.”

Privacy Settings for Popular AI Chatbots: Platform-by-Platform Guide

Let’s look at how the big tools handle ai privacy and what you can change.

ChatGPT (OpenAI)

On free and Plus accounts, OpenAI uses your chats to improve its models by default.

To reduce this:

1. Turn off training in settings

   • Go to Settings → Data Controls.

   • Turn off “Improve the model for everyone”.

2. Use the privacy portal

   • OpenAI also offers a separate privacy request form where you can ask that your content not be used for training at all.

ChatGPT also has Temporary Chat, which doesn’t save conversations to your history and doesn’t use them for training, but still keeps them for about 30 days for abuse monitoring before deletion.

For businesses, ChatGPT Enterprise and Team don’t train on your data and include stronger security and legal protections.

Claude (Anthropic)

Claude used to stand out for strong privacy. In 2025, Anthropic updated its terms so consumer chats can now be used for training unless you switch that off.

• If you allow training, Anthropic may keep de-identified versions of your chats for up to five years.

• If you disable training, chats are typically stored for about 30 days for safety and operations.

To turn training off:

• Open your account settings and disable the option that lets Anthropic use your chats to train models.

Claude also has an incognito style mode. Those chats don’t show in your history and aren’t used for training, but they can still be stored for around 30 days on Anthropic’s servers for safety checks.

For companies, Claude for Work and API don’t use your data for training and follow shorter log retention periods.

Google Gemini

Gemini is deeply tied into your Google account and activity.

• By default, Gemini can keep and use your chats as part of “Gemini Apps Activity” to improve services.

To adjust this:

1. Visit your Gemini Apps Activity page.

2. Turn off saving activity, or set auto-delete to 3, 18, or 36 months.

3. Manually delete past conversations you don’t want stored.

Even if you turn activity off, Google may still keep Gemini data for about 72 hours for safety and operations, and human reviewers can see some content in a de-identified way for up to three years.

Paid Gemini plans like Google One AI Premium give somewhat better privacy for training, but are still not designed for highly regulated data like HIPAA or PCI-DSS unless you use special enterprise tools.

Grok (xAI)

Grok is tied to X (formerly Twitter) and started with an aggressive default: training on user data by default, including public posts and interactions with Grok.

To limit this:

• Go to Settings → Privacy & Safety → Grok & third-party collaborators, then disable the option that allows your public data and Grok interactions to be used for training.

Private accounts prevent your posts from being pulled into training, but your direct interactions with Grok can still be processed.

Regulators in the EU have already pushed back on Grok’s data collection, leading to limits there.

Perplexity

Perplexity is both a search engine and an AI assistant. For free and standard Pro plans, it can use your queries and feedback to improve its models unless you turn this off.

To reduce training:

• Open Preferences or Settings.

• Find the “AI data retention” or similar toggle.

• Turn it off so your data isn’t kept for training.

• Look for memories and search history.

• Turn everything off and remove saved memories.

Perplexity’s incognito mode goes further than others. When you use it, searches aren’t stored in your account, aren’t used for training, and its “memory” feature is disabled.

For organizations, Perplexity Enterprise Pro offers a Zero Data Retention policy. That means they process your query to return an answer, then don’t keep the content or use it to train their own or third‑party models.

Note About “Incognito” and “Temporary” Chat Modes

Many AI tools now offer something called “incognito”, “temporary chat”, or “private mode”. These sounds safe. In practice, they solve only part of the problem.

What These Modes Actually Do

Across different tools, these modes usually:

• Hide chats from your personal history or sidebar.

• Keep those chats out of training datasets.

• Treat each session separately so old chats don’t carry over.

That’s useful, but not the full story.

What They Don’t Protect You From

Even in these modes:

• Services still keep chats on their servers for a time, often around 30 days, for abuse and safety checks.

• If a chat is flagged as harmful or illegal, it can be stored much longer, sometimes years.

• Human reviewers can still read samples of your conversations to improve safety systems.

• Your browser history still shows the page title, which can reveal what you asked the AI.

So incognito modes mostly hide things from you, not from the company.

If you wouldn’t send a detail in an email without thinking about where it might be stored, don’t send it to an AI either, even in “private” mode.

Privacy-Preserving Techniques: Using AI Without Exposing Sensitive Data

You don’t have to stop using AI to protect your privacy. You just need to change how you write prompts.

Practice Data Minimization

Before you hit send, ask: “What’s the least amount of detail the AI needs to help me?”

Try to:

• Remove full names, emails, phone numbers, ID numbers, addresses.

• Avoid copying raw customer lists, contracts, or entire medical charts.

• Replace specific numbers and dates when they aren’t needed.

For example:

• Instead of “Review this email to John Smith at Acme Corp about our Q4 2025 contract renewal worth $2.3 million”, say
  “Review this email to a client about a contract renewal. Focus on tone and clarity.”

You still get useful feedback without revealing private data.

Use Placeholders Instead of Real Details

Create a simple habit:

• Use “Person A / Person B” instead of real names.

• Use “Company X” instead of your client’s company.

• Use “City A” instead of the exact city.

• Use “last quarter” if exact dates don’t matter.

You can keep a local copy of the original text with real names for your own use, but send the redacted version to the AI.

Write Safer Prompts for Code and Documents

When you ask for coding help:

• Remove API keys, secrets, and database passwords.

• Replace internal function or product names with generic ones.

• Ask for patterns and examples, not fixes on full proprietary files.

For example:

• Instead of pasting your entire login system, ask
  “Show a secure login flow in Python that uses hashed passwords and protects against SQL injection.”

You get the security guidance without exposing your real codebase.

Private AI Chatbot Alternatives: Tools That Don’t Train on Your Data

If you want stronger ai privacy by default, a few tools are built for that.

Lumo by Proton: Chats Stay Confidential

Proton, the company behind Proton Mail, built Lumo, a privacy-first AI assistant.

Key points:

• Chats are end-to-end encrypted so only you can read them. Proton can’t see the content.

• Conversations are not used to train models.

• There’s a “ghost” style mode where chats disappear when you close them.

• It runs on Proton’s own infrastructure in Europe and follows strong privacy laws.

Lumo is a strong option if you already care about secure email or VPNs and want a private ai chatbot that fits the same mindset.

Raycast AI: Personal Info Stripped Before Sending

Raycast is a Mac launcher that also includes AI features. Its team has published clear details about AI privacy.

They state that:

• Prompts are processed on their servers, where they remove personal information before sending them to model providers like OpenAI or Anthropic.

• They don’t log or store full prompts long term, only minimal metadata such as token counts.

• Their contracts say providers can’t use Raycast data to train models.

• Requests are encrypted in transit.

You can also use your own API keys if you prefer. If you live in Raycast for productivity and want AI in that flow, this gives better privacy than talking to raw chatbots in the browser.

DuckDuckGo AI Chat: Anonymous by Design

DuckDuckGo’s AI Chat focuses on anonymity.

• It strips your IP address and other identifiers before sending prompts to the underlying AI models.

• It has agreements with providers so your chats aren’t used for training.

• Providers can keep data only for a short period, often up to 30 days, for operations.

• Any “recent chats” you see are stored on your device, not their servers.

You can also clear everything instantly. This is a good choice for quick questions when you don’t want to sign up or log in.

When Enterprise Plans Make Sense

If you handle very sensitive data for work, free or standard AI plans usually aren’t enough.

In that case:

• ChatGPT Enterprise/Team promises no training on your business data and adds legal agreements.

• Claude for Work offers similar guarantees with shorter log retention.

• Perplexity Enterprise Pro follows a Zero Data Retention policy and doesn’t train on your data.

These plans cost more, but they’re built for companies that must respect strict privacy rules.

Use AI, Keep Your Privacy

AI isn’t going away. You’ll probably use it more next year than this year. The question is not “Should I use AI?” but “How do I use it without leaking things I care about?”

You can:

• Turn off training and tweak privacy settings in the tools you already use.

• Treat incognito and temporary modes as helpful, but limited.

• Redact names and details and practice data minimization.

• Pick a private ai chatbot like Lumo, Raycast AI, or DuckDuckGo AI Chat when you want more protection by default.

Small changes in how you use AI can remove a lot of ai privacy risks. You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be more careful than the default.