How Does ChatGPT Save, Share, Use & Secure My Data?

Composing an email used to take minutes, and writing books could take weeks. But with ChatGPT, you save time and effort. Within seconds, you have a well-written, grammatically correct email, and in just a few hours, you have a book ready for your readers to enjoy.

ChatGPT is not just for writing emails and books. This AI super tool can help you code, calculate taxes, write songs, and provide driving directions or cooking instructions. 

With all these amazing capabilities comes the big question: “Is my data at risk when using ChatGPT?”

Does ChatGPT Save My Conversations?

OpenAI saves user conversations to train ChatGPT by default. But if you do not wish to share conversations, you can:

• Use temporary chats. Temporary conversations are deleted within 30 days and will keep your data from being used for training.
• Turn off settings. Turn off “Improve the model for everyone” to prevent data from being used for training while keeping the conversation in your history.

ChatGPT continues to evolve to meet users’ needs. To improve the accuracy and safety of its answers, OpenAI reviews conversations against publicly available and licensed content.

OpenAI does not market and sell its products using ChatGPT conversations. OpenAI’s Help Pages, under Data Control, states, “We don’t use data for selling our services, advertising, or building profiles of people–we use data to make our models more helpful for people.”

How Does ChatGPT Use My Data?

Each time you use ChatGPT, you add information to improve its answers. OpenAI reveals that it collects and uses user data to enhance ChatGPT and its services.

Training and Improving Language Models

All your interactions, including prompts and responses, train ChatGPT to understand better and provide human-like responses.

Enhancing Quality and Safety of Responses

Your conversations with ChatGPT help refine its algorithms, ensuring accurate and safe responses. Users may provide feedback or flag content as inaccurate, all of which improves the quality of ChatGPT’s answers.

Monitoring Harmful Content

Part of OpenAI”s Terms and policies is monitoring user-generated content to ensure compliance with community guidelines and policies.

They use data analysis to detect and prevent disseminating dangerous or policy-violating content, such as content promoting violence or illegal activities, identifying patterns of misuse and violations of OpenAI’s policies.

OpenAI protects users by anonymising their data. If you do not want to share your data, you can always opt out of model training or use temporary chat.

Can ChatGPT Share My Information with Third Parties?

AI enthusiast Michael Hyatt revealed in X that OpenAI does not sell user data. His “What You Should Know About ChatGPT Privacy” in December 2024 stated “OpenAI does not sell your information to third parties. Content generated during ChatGPT belongs to you.” 

However, there are instances where your information may be shared with OpenAI’s partners:

• If you allow sharing information to third-party apps, share links to your ChatGPT conversations or send information to these apps through custom actions.
• If you use GPTs built by other users. These models are enhanced with APIs to perform specific actions such as drafting emails or looking up flight information. Using these, you share data with third-party providers not covered by OpenAI’s privacy and security policies.
• If the law requires, OpenAI may provide users’ personal information to third parties without notifying them.

OpenAI’s Responsible Use and Non-Commercial Data Sharing

You may use ChatGPT’s responses for various online and offline activities. You must read and understand OpenAI’s Sharing and publication policy before you use its responses for your social media, content creation, research, and other activities.

Sharing Content on Social Media and Demos

You must review AI-generated content before sharing it on social media or using it to produce demonstrations and presentations. The content must be attributed and clearly indicated as AI-generated.

Publishing ChatGPT Content

You must attribute content correctly and disclose the role of AI in creating it. Also, ensure that the content does not violate OpenAI’s content policy or terms of use before publishing.

Using ChatGPT for Research

OpenAI supports research publications and offers a Researcher Access Program to explore critical topics such as alignment, fairness, interpretability, exploration, and robustness.

How Secure Is ChatGPT?

The following are ways OpenAI secures ChatGPT data:

1. Data Encryption and Server-Side Protections

User conversations and data are encrypted during transit using TLS 1.2 or higher and AES-256 at rest. OpenAI restricts unauthorised access using network security policies and firewalls.

2. Security Standards Compliance

ChatGPT Enterprise and API services follow SOC 2 Type 2 data security and privacy compliance standards. They employ regular third-party testing to identify and address vulnerabilities.

3. Access Controls and Audit Logging

Enterprise accounts come with an admin console for efficient user management, including domain verification and Single Sign-On (SSO) to scale access securely. With Audit Log API, security teams can access activities to identify security issues, risks, and gaps. 

4. Incident History and Assurances

OpenAI has prevented the misuse of its services. One such incident involves banning accounts used by Chinese threat actors to create spy tools. Also, OpenAI’s Trust Portal offers compliance documentation and insights into their security practices.

How Does ChatGPT Handle Sensitive or Personal Data?

Sensitive data such as your location or health records can be easily shared when using ChatGPT, which is why OpenAI has established guidelines and safeguards to prevent this.

1. User Guidance: Avoid Sharing Sensitive Data

OpenAI reminds users never to share their personal and financial information when using ChatGPT. This includes users’ full names, addresses, and phone numbers, banking or credit card details, and confidential business strategies or trade secrets. There is no way to delete this type of data from logs, so it’s best to avoid sharing it completely.

2. Filtering and Limited Retention of Personal Info

With OpenAI’s automated filtering, ChatGPT can detect and remove personally identifiable information (PII). This system flags or blocks harmful or inappropriate content and redacts sensitive info to be used for training models. In ChatGPT business or enterprise plans, conversations are not used to train models, even by default.

3. User Control Through Account Settings

If using a free ChatGPT account, adjust user settings through the Data Controls Page, switching off “Improve the model for everyone.” You may also delete individual chats or clear your history. ChatGPT also allows you to download a copy of your data for review.

Meanwhile, Enterprise users are provided additional administrative controls, such as domain verification, SSO, and audit logs, to improve security, compliance, and track usage.

What Is ChatGPT’s Privacy Policy?

The following is a summary of ChatGPT’s Privacy Policy:

Data Collection

OpenAI gathers various types of personal information when you create an account to use ChatGPT.

• Account Information: Your name, contact information, account credentials, date of birth, payment information, and transaction history.
• User Content: Any data you input into the services, such as prompts, file uploads, and feedback.
• Communication Information: If you communicate with OpenAI, they will ask for your name, contact details, and conversations.

Technical Information: OpenAI automatically collects data about your interactions with their services, such as your log data (e.g., IP address, browser type), usage data (e.g., features used, content viewed), and device information (e.g., device name, operating system).

Data Storage

OpenAI uses encryption and security measures to keep your personal information safe. 

Accessing or Deleting Your Data

You can always control how OpenAI accesses or uses your personal information through your account settings. You may export data to your email or delete your account anytime.

Is ChatGPT Safe for Business or Enterprise Use?

ChatGPT is available for free, plus, team, and enterprise accounts. Enterprise is recommended for businesses providing enhanced security, privacy, and compliance. It has the following features:

• Data from users are not utilised to train AI models.
• Custom contracts with improved privacy and data handling clauses to accommodate business needs.
• Additional administrative controls for enhanced access.
• Audit logging features to allow security teams to monitor usage and check for issues. 

The ChatGPT Enterprise version is best for client communications, internal documentation, code generation, or brainstorming.

Can I Delete My ChatGPT History or Data?

Yes, you can delete your ChatGPT chat history or data and delete individual chat threads or erase your entire chat history.

To delete individual threads, hover your cursor to the conversation or thread you want to delete and right-click. Then, delete the thread. To erase your history, go to your Settings > Data Controls > Turn Off Chat History & Training. Remember, deleting your chat history or data will delete it permanently.

Key Statistics on ChatGPT Usage and Privacy Concerns

Source: Exploding Topics

As of February 2025, ChatGPT has 400 million active users. This is more than 100 million compared to the number of users it had in December 2024. It was revealed that around 22% of the Australian population uses ChatGPT. 

Here are other important ChatGPT statistics:

• As of February 2025, more than 2 million businesses have adopted ChatGPT Enterprise.
• ChatGPT receives more than 10 million queries daily.
• OpenAI announced its annual revenue surpassed $1.6 billion in December 2023.

Malicious GPT Usage

• Multiple companies have reported ChatGPT’s ability to develop malware.
• A 1,265% increase in phishing emails was reported by SlashNext The State of Phishing 2023 since the launch of ChatGPT.
• The US government signed the first AI executive order in October 2023 to address concerns about safety and security.
• The European Parliament released the Artificial Intelligence Act in December 2023 to protect its citizens from the risks of AI.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Does ChatGPT keep my chats forever?

ChatGPT does not keep your chat forever. However, you may turn off chat history or delete your account, which permanently deletes all your conversations.

2. Can ChatGPT see my data?

The only data ChatGPT will see is the information you input or type to start your query. Therefore, you must never type in your personal or sensitive information.

3. Can businesses use ChatGPT securely?

Yes, businesses can use ChatGPT securely through the ChatGPT Enterprise version. This version has improved security and privacy features to protect businesses.

4. How do I delete my ChatGPT history?

There are two ways to delete ChatGPT history. You may delete it by individual threads or chats by hovering your cursor on the conversation you want to delete. You may also delete your chat history by going through your Settings > Data Controls > and Delete all chats.

5. Is ChatGPT GDPR-compliant?

OpenAI supports GDPR through its Data Processing Addendum. This ensures user security and confidentiality while using ChatGPT.