I’ve used ChatGPT for about two years now, and looking back at what ChatGPT knows about me, it kind of creeps me out how much it knows about my tastes in movies, history, shows, etc. I also saw a headline recently about how my data could be seen by anybody. I went into my settings to turn off the option to train my data on their models, deleted all my chats and erased my memories, but I’m not sure that’s enough. Is it enough to make ChatGPT forget everything about me and hopefully protect me from having cybercriminals get access to my data? I don’t want to pay for any subscriptions or anything which is why I don’t use a VPN.
Unfortunately, the word "delete" now means "hide" in this day and age.
Their policies basically say they can keep anything indefinitely, regardless if you delete the chats.
Even if they wiped it from their server, they would likely have a bunch of backups for whatever reason.
But typically, tech companies in the US (or FiveEyes) need to keep all data for "safety reasons".
Unless you're in the EU.
Though the enforcement is at best patchy
Uh-huh: "Please provide your ID and a face scan to possibly remove your political preferences."
They are legally required to due to current litigation and ambiguity around regulation.
They are legally required to so 3 letter agencies can subpoena and also that data is profitable as hell to sell to various data brokers.
They're also legally required due to ongoing court cases against them.
Yes. I should have phrased my comment better to not sound like it's disagreeing with yours. I think it's all of these reasons together, they'd keep the data regardless, that stuff is valuable.
Yes, and considering this, is it really worth it? I tried asking it for a cost benefit analysis of a few different types of plants (how much carbon they recycle versus their lifetime cost) - and it only gave me a surface level ADVERTISEMENT-like response of plants that would look nice. Deleted and never downloaded again. I'll do the math myself geez.
It will vanish eventually…probably before any human cares to review it.
Start feeding wrong info to chatgpt about yourself
Poison the well is the best thing to do in any situation where some org u dont care about has ur info.
This is the only right answer. Just feed it a bit of nonsense each day.
Yes, train it to learn lying./s
Just stop using this shit.
Data poisoning is OPs only hope.
Use more privacy based LLMs or host locally
How do you host things locally and what other LLMs do you recommend that are privacy-based.
Can I create or host my own LLM where all the data is mine and it only learn from me and what I feed it.
Genuine questions. I truly appreciate it
Give chat a role of being an expert in LLM Ask ChatGPT to walk you through it and it will.
People don’t already do this? I make up shit constantly
I wonder how unhinged you can be in there before authorities start showing up.
I have repeatedly deleted my chats and chat memory (at the user level), but in this year's "Your Year with ChatGPT" it correctly counted the number of total chats, messages, etc over the entire year (in the thousands).
Even though the chats in the sidebar are only the 3-4 from today.
And even though in settings I selected and it says, "Memory is disabled. ChatGPT won't use or save memories."
So... flat out, no. Based on firsthand experience. They keep everything, just make the UI look as though they have "deleted" it, _for you_.
This is the same company that developed its technology on the backs of stolen research papers, books, song lyrics, youtube videos, and countless other breaches of privacy and intellectual property. You really think they are going to delete your data? They are going to be using that all the way up until GPT 21
Agree completely. Add disinformation, move to self-hosted unless there's an exigent business need that your self hosted system can't handle.
It's just that good self hosted ai models cost an enormous amount of money.. the best ones require roughly 200gb of graphic ram to work really well.
Not ordinary ram, graphics ram... So you need roughly 6-8 rtx 5090's which sell for roughly 2500 euros each.
The only reason why open ai google and the likes can do it is because per user utilization isn't really that constant in time
While your self hosted system would sit there doing nothing for 95 to 99% of the day, it could serve a lot of people in the meantime and that's why it's much more economical on scale...
Anyways, self hosted AI models would be something i would really like to have but don't quite have the hardware for it
Perhaps if you find some like-minded friends, family or colleagues you could share the costs, use it together and it would be sort of acceptable in that case
Also helps that OpenAI is operating at a MASSIVE loss and has been since its inception. To operate sustainably as a business they'd have to have multiple times the prices and further restrict the free tier. They just want to get as many users as possible so they can show investors how "useful" it is.
Yes that's true.. i just mean that if you would want to build your own self hosted ai server that is capable of the best models, i would estimate the system to cost roughly 25 to 28000 euros... Before the recent price hikes because of ai data centers...
Not really feasible at all
Yeah if you want AI right now take advantage of the money launderers throwing money around subsidizing it, and if you're worried about data and privacy just poison the well with a bunch of nonsense. Self hosting most things can make sense but not AI. It's not even useful enough to be worth it even if it didn't have such high requirements.
My opinion They forced to if Person is European under GDPR otherwise nope.
What I am saying is they have broken so many laws already, why not a few more?
They should delete your data if your in Europe, or they could not, tell no one and accept the risk that if they do get caught then they just pay the fine with some of their billions of dollars and use that data to help train a model.
Once the data is used to train a model you can't just delete it, so for a company going all in on expanding I can almost guarantee they are not deleting EU data.
I know you saying.
My opinion That why GDPR Law need updated so to increased Fine from maximum of 10 Billion Euro to 25 Billion Euro so minimum Fine be 10 Euro Billion no less and 5 Billion Euro Fine specifically targeting Board of Directors.
yeah I'm 99.99% sure nothing is deleted after you clear the history in ChatGPT. a while ago I cleared history and memory in ChatGPT, then after a couple of days I logged back in I saw that my history was not empty for a few seconds then it disappeared. (I only use the site on 1 pc and not any app on mobile)
They have two memories per person, it appears: a long, archive memory the content of which is retained for courts and federal agencies but not for the AI use (except metadata, possibly) and your account memory, useable by AI fully, which you can control and which is limited in size.
here's what happens when I open it. Maybe it depends on the country?
Maybe. US-based and my memory is disabled, but I certainly had a lot of datapoints to "celebrate".
Damn.. I deleted my chat history and the nag disappeared. Would have liked to see what it had.
They’re also desperate for cash, so are likely to be even less scrupulous than normal.
I’m sorry, but using ChatGPT (especially this much) should be shamed. You should feel embarrassed.
Time to build a new personality
Probably not. Best to just stop the bleed.
Not only can you not make it forget, but I am convinced it also knows what you’re typing into the prompt box (in the app) in real time before you even hit Send, similar to a keylogger. If you hit backspace and type something different before hitting Send, it will remember what you had already typed and erased.
100%. I wouldn’t go anywhere near generative AI for many reasons.
Ask ChatGPT! 😀
Unironically, asking ChatGPT is very helpful here:
ChatGPT helpfully tells me if I'm in California
and walks me though how
...further explaining:
Can't believe that actually worked.
ChatGPT just tells you what you want to hear. The company would argue that your data has been "aggregated or de-identified."
So it tells you what OpenAI is supposed to do. How quaint.
Ok, that was funny
If youre married it cant testify against you
😂😂😂
Doubtful but there is hope. Treat it like a mushroom from now on. Feed it shit and keep it in the dark.
ChatGPT may forget, but the servers certainly not. By law, they have to store this data for some time. I believe that depending where you are, you can apply officially to delete all your personal data they have. Even if that happen, the anonymized chats will be there forever
If its free, you are the product
While this idea is normally true, I feel like AI companies are playing a different game: they're trying to get you settled in before they pull the plug and tell you to pay up. Remember cloud storage being an all you can eat buffet? It's the same exact deal.
Have you ever thought about having to go back to normal Google searches and cobbling up boilerplate Python / PowerShell scripts? I mean yeah, it would take me about 15 minutes... or I can use Claude Code and generate it in seconds.
The time saved is the value, and they're banking on your future payments.
I'm one of those who does find value in the product. I do pay for it, and it's gonna suck when they pull the plug and start increasing the subscription price like Amazon Prime, Disney+, and every other subscription service.
I should also note, I think Sora 2 is garbage made for a completely different audience: an audience that is unlikely to pay because it doesn't really provide any useful value outside of generating stupid funny videos. Real value products are ChatGPT, Claude Code, and Adobe's Gen AI fill. Anthropic and Adobe seem to be laser focused on their niches while OpenAI is lost and doesn't know what it wants to be. As a result, there's a good chance they won't survive the bubble.
No.
No, so fill it with endless questions about "coping with a massive penis" and "how to bathe injured puppies" etc
No, you can’t. After the recent court loss, OpenAI will retain all your conversations (hopefully not images) for a significant time, I think it is usually a year or so.
if you care about your privacy don't use ai chatbots it's really that simple
Also if you care about the environment, and the human race.
That's why i use a proxy like duck.ai to interact with AI chats. No account logn and you can remove the chats. It's not totally anonymous but it's better than having an account they can tie your prompts to.
You must be new to this whole internet thing.
With rare exception, you should treat the internet as one giant WORM drive.
WORM is an old acronym for: Write once, read many.
If you "write" something to the internet, it can be read many times. Usually forever.
Best thing you can do is throw all your tech in the garbage and go eat sticks and play with rocks.
You'll feel better, and your life will be so boring, no one will care about spying on you anyway.
Remember, smoke your rocks and eat your sticks. Life will get better. Maybe.
I don't get the argument. If we reach a point where extensive information about everybody is readily and easily accessible then the people they'll want to spy on the most are the ones whose information is more obscure as they'll be the ones who potentially pose the greatest threat.
Also, the whole "get with tech or go eat sticks" mentality sounds exactly like something someone who has no imagination at all would say.
Re: your second sentence, so basically we're screwed either way 🥲
Nah, as usual though the solution lies somewhere in the middle, but people generally don't like that because it's the hardest to implement. I just don't like the idea of a person calling another person "boring" because they might decide not to blindly follow the flock.
Do you huff glue? You're not getting it.
If you send data to ANY app or service, that data is now forever a part of whatever database it got added to.
I've worn many hats in cloud land. Data is not respected. One company I worked for, the "delete account" did no actual deleting. Just archived.
Why? In case the data could be used for something in the future.
In conclusion, you should probably put the can of glue down, and get a new hobby. Because if you stop huffing glue, the whole concept of privacy will start to make actual sense.
😂 Brother it sounds like you're the one who's huffing glue. Re-read the main context of the post the response and then my response to it. You sound like you're 12 years old.
What part about OpenAI will never delete your data, regardless of whatever option you pick in your profile, are you failing to understand?
Guess some people really do need an explicit /s, jeesh...
That's not even what I'm talking about. Nobody is effing disputing that. That's not the part I was responding to. What part are YOU failing to understand? Jesus Christ.
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And in case your mental faculties are less than optimal: /s (actually just forget the whole thing).
You realize that LLMs don't give a shit about your consent, right?
AI companies have stolen from millions of people: stolen their IPs without compensation or consent. The information you share in your "conversations" are no different. Generative AI is literally theft-ware.
When anything is free, YOU are the product.
People are literally training AI to take over their own jobs..... for FREE!
Absolute madness!
Ah you sweet summer child.
Too late, OP is owned by ChatGPT.
Side note: If you don't want to pay a subscription for a VPN, a free alternative is Proton.
Probably never going to delete any info off OpenAI servers, though.
They've saved it in their vault, sorry.
Just stop using it. AI uses vast amounts of water and is contributing heavily to environmental collapse. It knows what it knows, just think for yourself now.
Lol half the comments in here are "use it more actually, just feed it wrong information!"
AI people are a lost cause I fear.
Actually, it doesn't know what it knows. It's not smart enough to know what it doesn't know.
Customer Service Announcement: Private AI can be found at duck.ai
I've been using Lumo, but don't know ifnit's really private or they just say it is
You are just trusting one more entity at that point
No. There's a reason there's been warnings to not give these things personal data since they hit the market. Those warnings were important because it's more or less permanent.
Nobody knows I think. I kept my chat memory clean but who knows if it went somewhere else. Knowing big tech though, I never inserted any personal information ever. Strictly business.
Short answer: No.
Long answer: The moment information hits the internet, it stays on the internet.
Wait are y’all actually using ChatGPT? THOUSANDS of messages? That’s genuinely insane
Ha! Ha! Ha!
Well, you did everything you could right now. The problem is - nobody can guarantee what OpenAI actually does when you tell it to delete data. You lose control over your data the moment you hand it over to a third party, this is what everyone needs to understand.
In your case, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Knowing what movies you like probably isn't something anyone will be able to exploit against you. From now on, make sure you don't share sensitive information with services you don't fully trust over channels you don't fully trust. When you "talk" to the AI, imagine that you're sharing that information with the world - writing it on some public forum, that's a good mind model to have.
No just wait until they start selling the data for targeted advertising
I delete my data and my account about 2x per year.
It's also worth having email addresses that are not directly tied to the email addresses you use for other services.
Nope!
I used it a handful of times: no account, no personal info, only innocuous questions about technical information or something I would have used Google for before it sucked.
When I asked a question about weather, it gave me the weather in my hometown that I have never shared with it, or even accessed it from (I work in a different town, only ever used ChatGPT at work).
I asked how it knew where I lived, it said it didn't and just picked a random town out of all the towns in the United States. Right.
If it's for ethical reasons, don't use AI. If it's for privacy reasons, don't use AI. If it's for accuracy reasons, don't use AI. Actually, just don't use AI. The only way they'll be stopped from stealing your information is when some other giant corporation or the government sues them, then takes it for themselves :)
Everyone saying to feed it wrong information- you are still unwittingly feeding it right information.
No. You are now part of the machine. Should've thought about what you were doing.
Have you tried asking ChatGPT?
Nope. You have been stupid, now pay for your stupidity. All the data that ChatGPT collected about you, all your chats, everything now is part of the model. Even if you invoke GDPR request, sure they may remove your info from their databases, but what's in the model stays there forever. You have sold your soul to the corporation, and there's no goddamn thing you can do about it.
Funny how only now people are realizing, that sharing EVERYTHING in your life with big tech corpos is a bad thing. But now it is far too late.
Weren’t the chats only publicly available for ppl who had the share feature on and had shared a chat session to a friend/themselves? Thats what I recall so as long as you didn’t do that maybe you are safe from yours being publicly found? Altho from what I’ve seen those were still anonymized. Like, it didn’t openly identify the user but if identifying info was used in chat others could identify a user etc
What are you guys asking these AIs? I may be using it wrong but what I ask chat gpt I could probably find out myself only it would take more time.
Sorry, no!
Lol.
No chance, and your 'pig faced midget porn' creations have been training their AI for a prolonged period and are a permanent record.
That's the reason I "delete" my account and start a new one. Nobody knows what "delete" means in this case.
Have you tried asking it?
Lmao. You can't.
Will all be very… funny if the same AI Companies begin to blackmail every one of the users for a different thing… there is actually no laws in place yet to prevent a machine doing it & being liable, right? Its dark
Dream on, sweetie.
The NYT has a legal order on them preventing the deletion of any data.
Sam Altman: No.
yes. but also no.
Too late, but please stop. The rest of us are forced to live vicariously through your deeds
Nope. Sorry. Part of their master plan to harvest as much data on us as possible.
No ofcourse not. Why would you think this was possible in 2025?
Such naivety could have been forgiven 10 years ago but now?
Come on son. Do better lol.
I’ve only ever used the Eris app to use AI. It runs 100% on your device and works completely offline. Start using Eris instead and move into the forest and don’t contact anyone for at least 3 years.
I didn't pay for chatgpt or use an account that was tied to any real info about me. That should always be your first defense when you sign up for stuff.
Never give your real name or traceable info.
Do you live in a state with “delete my data” laws? Or the EU/any other countries with privacy laws? If the answer is no, you’re SOL
Oh I can pretty much guarantee that information has already been sold… multiple times by now.
There’s a delete button. Unless you built the functionality for it, there really isn’t any way to tell if it actually deletes it.
If I had to guess I’d say it doesn’t.
AI is pretty stupid, you could probably poison the algos with fake data. I'm a Steelers fan we've been joking about signing a certain player, sure enough AI bots will tell you he's an active member of the team!
My life is so pathetic, every one would assume it's a hallucination.
Personal I create IDs for each of my AI usage. Then when I want it lost, I kill the ID and create a new one. My IP is changed by my ISP from time to time so it's not a perm tracker for anyone who does not have access to my ISP's history. Browser finger printing if a problem but I swap things around from time to time. Comment patterns could spot me, but sometimes I use AI to rewrite what I am going to enter into another AI.
Below is an example of an AI rewriting this paragraph at 8th grade level:
Here is an example of an AI rewriting this paragraph at college level:
What is there to fear? In 100 years I promise this will be the least of your worries.
Wtf arw you on here? Lol
It's r/privacy. If you don't care about privacy because you'll be dead one day, just gtfo? Why waste your time on this sub?
i doubt OP is still alive in a hundred years
…that’s precisely my point. Thank you.
You’re welcome
People that are directly responsible for almost the entirety of shit in the world also think like this.
Yeah you’re right.
Chats get “anonymized” and saves for training
memories are used within the user space to created a more personalized experience which is why you’re creeped out by how much it knows about you.
People are joking but the honest truth is you can actually ask chatgpt about what it sees on its side of the chats and it’ll tell you. Its as transparent as it can be in my opinion.
I both agree and disagree with the poison the well mentality. It’s good for the individual but bad for the greater quality development of the system.