Love using ChatGPT but feel a bit uneasy about where your conversations end up? You’re not alone. By default, when you chat with ChatGPT, OpenAI can use those interactions to help train their future AI models. While this helps them improve, you might prefer to keep your chats just between you and the AI.
The good news? You can easily tell OpenAI not to use your data this way, giving you more peace of mind about your privacy. Here’s how to flip that switch:
Finding Your Data Settings
It’s actually pretty simple to change this. You just need to dive into your ChatGPT settings:
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Open ChatGPT: Whether you’re on your computer or your phone.
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Get to Settings:
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On Desktop: Click your name or profile picture (usually hanging out in the bottom-left corner) and select “Settings.”
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On Mobile App: Tap the menu icon (often three lines or dots), then tap your name near the bottom to open up the settings screen.
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Find Data Controls: Once you’re in the main Settings menu, look for a section called “Data Controls.”
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Flip the Switch: Inside “Data Controls,” you’ll see an option labeled “Improve the model for everyone”. (On desktop, this might be tucked under a “Model Improvement” subsection). This is the key setting! Just toggle this switch OFF.
What Happens When You Turn It Off?
Worried this will break ChatGPT or limit what you can do? Don’t be! Turning this off only stops OpenAI from using your future conversations for their training datasets.
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You can still use ChatGPT exactly as before.
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All features and functionalities remain available.
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Your past conversations (before you turned it off) might still be in their system based on their policy, but new ones won’t be used for training going forward.
It’s purely about giving you more control over how your data is used.
Quick, Easy, and More Private
And that’s it! In just a few clicks or taps, you’ve taken a simple but significant step to protect your privacy while using ChatGPT. Taking a moment to adjust this setting ensures your chats stay more private and aren’t fed back into the training machine.
