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If you are one of these 900 million people For people who reportedly use ChatGPT every week, chatbots may be a staple of life. Maybe it helps you get things done or plan meals. You can also take its advice whenever you have a fight with a friend or family member.
But as you turn to ChatGPT for more in your life, you may want to re-evaluate how much personal information you’re revealing along the way. Ideally, you know not to disclose sensitive financial information – but other details about yourself may also be worth protecting.
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(Disclosure: ZDNET’s parent company Ziff Davis filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in the training and operation of its AI systems.)
Privacy experts are already warning about the potential pitfalls of saying too much to your chatbot. The underlying concern is that no one is entirely sure how your personal information, whether sensitive or seemingly innocuous, might be used in the future. Some people fear that personal data could end up in mass surveillance systems or be used in other unexpected ways that would ultimately harm you.
He argues that this ambiguity is reason enough to exercise caution.
If you’re using a consumer account, here are five ways you can better manage the personal information ChatGPT has about you.
1. Exit training data
One step you can take to make your ChatGPT experience more secure is to prevent OpenAI from using your information to train its models. Security experts are expressing concern that if your data ends up in a model, it could one day be used in ways that we can’t even predict right now.
Go to Settings > Data Controls > Model Improvements for All. Then toggle the switch and click “Done”.
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You can also use OpenAI’s Privacy Portal to “Make a Privacy Request”. Select “I have a consumer ChatGPT account” and then select “Don’t train on my content.” From there, you may be asked to sign in. After that step, you will see a button to “Submit Request”.
This technology further applies only to your data in ChatGPT.
2. Delete old chats
Another step you can take to clean up the information you provided to ChatGPT is to delete old chats. There are two ways to do this. First go to Settings > Data Controls > Delete All Chats.
You can also delete individual chats from the left sidebar by clicking the three dots next to the chat name.
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Although the conversation will disappear from your chat history immediately, it may take up to 30 days for it to be permanently removed from OpenAI’s systems. Company Website.
OpenAI also sets out two exceptions where this rule may not apply: circumstances where the company needs to hang on to the data for “security or legal obligations” or because the data has been “disassociated from your account.”
3. Use temporary chat
If you don’t want to delete chats on the go, you can use ChatGPT temporary chat. A temporary chat will not appear in your history, nor will it reference anything from previous conversations or memories. It will also not be used for training data.
According to the FAQ page, similar to the retention policy for deleted chats, OpenAI may keep a copy of your temporary chats for up to 30 days.
To start a temporary chat, click the button labeled “Temporary” at the bottom right of the new chat.
For some ChatGPT users, this may result in a less personalized experience, as ChatGPT will not learn anything new about you that could inform future responses.
4. Manage Memories
The idea behind memories is for ChatGPT to retain certain chat details, which, in theory, could make the chatbot more useful over time. For example, you can ask him to remember that you have a dog or that you are a vegetarian.
According to ChatGPT’s FAQ on memories, there are two main settings you can use to control memories.
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You can go to Settings > Personalization and then click the “Manage” button next to “Memory.” That step will pull up a list of saved memories that you can delete either completely or individually. You can also turn off the switches for “Reference Saved Memories” and “Reference Chat History.”
OpenAI can also keep a log of saved memories for up to 30 days.
5. Delete your account
This is a more extreme measure, but you can always do delete your account Completely. However, this is a permanent step, so make sure it’s what you want. One way to do this is to go to OpenAI’s privacy portal and “Make a privacy request.” Select “I have a consumer ChatGPT account” and then select “Delete my ChatGPT account.”
You can also go to Settings > Account and then click “Delete” under “Delete account.” According to OpenAI, you can only do this if you have logged in within the last 10 minutes; Otherwise, you will have to sign in again. From there, you’ll need to type in your email to confirm and type “Delete,” which will unlock the “Permanently delete my account” button. Finally, click on that button.
How to find out what ChatGPT knows
If you’re unsure about how much information you’ve given ChatGPT – and whether you should take any of the steps above – there’s a way you can get a comprehensive idea of what the chatbot knows about you. Just ask ChatGPT.
My editor Ellie Windsor asked ChatGPT directly how much he knew about him. It replied with a detailed list of personal details that she had shared with it. He then asked it to prepare a prompt that could summarize everything it knew about him in a scannable profile, and sent the prompt back to ChatGPT. You can also try this method. You may be surprised to know what and how much returns it gives.
