It's best not to enter any private or confidential information into generative AI tools. It is a possibility that developers might review your entries to improve outputs. Look for options to turn off settings that allow for your inputs to be used to improve the model. ChatGPT also offers a "Temporary chat" where your chat won’t appear in your history and ChatGPT won’t save anything from your conversation.
You can do the same in other tools.
- In Perplexity’s settings, the switch is called “AI data retention.”
- In Google’s Gemini, click a button in the lower left called “activity.” At the top of the page that comes up, you can click the menu that says “turn off.”
- In Microsoft Copilot, if you log in with your NetID (not your personal email), you'll be in a version of Copilot that doesn't use your data for training. You can verify it when you see a green shield icon in the corner near your name.
- Claude doesn’t use your inputs for training unless you opt in.
Learn more
- Temporary chat FAQ - Open AI
- Data Controls FAQ - Open AI
- Profile, Settings & Languages - Perplexity AI
- Privacy - Anthropic
- Training is not the same as chatting: ChatGPT and other LLMs don’t remember everything you say - Simon Willison
This answer adapted under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License from the University of Arizona Libraries.