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ChatGPT is safe for everyday use, but not private by default: Free, Go, Plus and Pro chats train OpenAI's models until you switch that off. The plans most people use have no HIPAA agreement. Whether its answers are right is a separate question, with its own page.
Use it if you turn training off and keep to everyday questions, drafts and homework help.
Be careful if you paste health records, client files or anything you would mind seeing in a court filing.
Skip it if you handle patient data for work on a personal or Business plan, since none of them comes with a HIPAA agreement.
sources checked 2026-10-13 · by dan scutaru
| what we checked | what we found |
|---|---|
| Training on your chats | On by default Free, Go, Plus and Pro chats may train OpenAI's models until you opt out, and rating an answer still sends that whole chat. source |
| Ads | Free and Go only With ad personalization on, ads can use past chats and memory; OpenAI says advertisers get only aggregated views and clicks. source |
| Deleting your chats | Within 30 days Deleted chats are scheduled for permanent deletion within 30 days, unless OpenAI must keep them for security or legal reasons. source |
| Court-ordered retention | Ended, one batch still held A court order in The New York Times' lawsuit kept deleted consumer chats until September 26, 2025; OpenAI still holds limited April to September 2025 data. source |
| Business, Enterprise, Edu | Not trained on by default OpenAI reports a completed SOC 2 audit and AES-256 encryption at rest for these workspaces. source |
| Age limits | 13+, parent permission under 18 OpenAI's services are not intended for children under 13, and users under 18 need a parent's or guardian's permission. source |
| Incidents | 2023 bug exposed payment details A bug showed some users other people's chat titles, and partial payment details of 1.2% of Plus subscribers active in a nine-hour window. source |
| Regulators | Italy's fine annulled Italy's privacy regulator fined OpenAI 15 million euros in December 2024; a Rome court cancelled the fine in March 2026. source |
Not by default. OpenAI's pricing page marks content as used for training on every personal plan, with an opt-out, and the opt-out covers new conversations only. Temporary Chat is the closest thing to a private mode: no history, no training, no new memories, though OpenAI may keep a copy for 30 days for safety.
For up to 30 days, and some of it longer. OpenAI's help page says deleting a chat does not necessarily delete a saved memory created from it, and Library files stay until you delete them there. Archiving only hides a chat. Deleting the whole account follows the same 30-day rule, after which the same email can sign up again.
Only with a signed agreement. OpenAI offers a Business Associate Agreement for sales-managed Enterprise and Edu, ChatGPT for Clinicians and the API, and says it does not offer one for ChatGPT Business. If you paste your own records into a personal account, Harvard law professor I. Glenn Cohen notes you are handing them to a company HIPAA does not cover.
Settings > Account > Delete, then confirm. OpenAI deletes the data within 30 days. Cancel any App Store or Google Play subscription first, because deleting the account does not.
OpenAI has not disclosed an attack that stole ChatGPT conversations. In November 2025 an attacker took names, emails and rough locations of some API users and a few ChatGPT users from Mixpanel, an analytics vendor; OpenAI says no chats or payment details were exposed.
Its privacy policy says no. It may share limited data with marketing partners to show you OpenAI ads elsewhere, and you can opt out in account settings.
13, with a parent's permission until 18. Eligible accounts that age prediction or the stated age place under 18 switch to ChatGPT for Teens, with extra safeguards.