AI Privacy Guide for Professionals

Why This Guide Matters

Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity have become everyday productivity tools. But behind their convenience is a critical consideration: privacy. Whether you're using AI to draft emails, summarize documents, or generate ideas, it's important to understand how your data is being collected, used, and stored.

This guide offers a straightforward breakdown of what major AI platforms do with your data, how long they keep it, who may access it, and what settings you can control. It also includes recent legal developments (like the New York Times v. OpenAI lawsuit) and provides direct links and step-by-step instructions for updating your privacy settings.

If you're using AI tools in a professional context, especially if you're working with client information or sensitive content (e.g., health records, financials, client records, legal documents, or internal strategy materials), this guide is essential reading. Always check with your employer before using AI tools on the job as many organizations have internal policies on acceptable use.

What to Look For When Evaluating AI Privacy

When evaluating any AI tool, particularly for professional or organizational use, consider the following questions:

• What types of data are collected? Are prompts, files, metadata, or connected app information included?

• Is the data used for model training? Is this enabled by default, or only with consent?

• What is the data retention policy? How long is your data stored, and can you delete it?

• Who has access? Are internal teams, third-party vendors, or reviewers involved?

• What control do you have? Can you disable training, delete history, or restrict integrations?

Start by reviewing the tool’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, typically linked in the website footer. Then navigate to your account or workspace settings under "Privacy," "Data Usage," or "Security" to assess your options.

Pay special attention to tools that request access to third-party services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Slack, Dropbox, or Notion. Connecting these services may give the AI access to:

• Email content, meeting schedules, attachments, or shared documents

• Historical communications and metadata

• Internal data tied to your professional accounts

Before granting access:

• Carefully review what permissions are being requested during integration

• Confirm whether your connected data could be used to improve the model

• Disconnect services that aren’t essential to your workflow

• Ensure that you’re complying with your organization’s data use policies

When in doubt, opt for the most privacy-conscious settings, and favor enterprise-level services for handling any sensitive or regulated information

Legal Context: NYT v. OpenAI

As part of ongoing litigation with The New York Times, OpenAI has been ordered to retain user conversations, including deleted chats, for potential legal discovery. This impacts all Free, Plus, and Team users of ChatGPT. Users on Enterprise plans or using API endpoints with "zero data retention" are not affected.

This development underscores the importance of understanding what happens to your data, even after you think you've deleted it.

AI Privacy Matrix (with Step-by-Step Opt-Out Instructions)

Below is a detailed comparison of how leading AI platforms handle your data, including what they collect, whether your input is used to train their models, how long it's stored, and how you can manage or opt out of data sharing. Use this as a quick reference to understand your level of control and risk across each platform.

Final Recommendations

• Avoid pasting sensitive or confidential data into AI tools

• Disable training and activity tracking when possible

• Prefer enterprise-grade plans for stronger data protections

• Regularly review and delete your chat histories (though with ongoing litigation, this may become irrelevant)

• Confirm your organization’s policy before using AI tools professionally