FIELD GUIDE · PRIVACY, MEMORY & THE CLOUD
You can own your words while the provider still stores them, processes them, reviews them, or trains on them. Ownership and control are two different drawers.
UPDATED 2026-09-21
TL;DR
01
OpenAI's 2026 consumer Terms of Use say users keep ownership rights in their input and — as between the user and OpenAI — own output to the extent the law allows. That doesn't mean the service never processes or retains it.
02
OpenAI's Data Controls FAQ says you can keep your chat history while switching off use of new conversations for model improvement. Temporary Chats are a separate thing. One toggle never answers every privacy question.
03
Anthropic's consumer privacy docs say chats and coding sessions may be used to improve models when users allow it, when a conversation gets flagged for safety review, or when users otherwise opt in. The provider's policy and your settings both matter.
04
Google's Gemini Privacy Hub says reviewed chats can be kept separately for up to three years, while Keep Activity settings govern other retention and model-improvement use. Deleting what you see isn't always the same as erasing every reviewed copy.
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The privacy prose is boring. The consequences aren't.