Here’s How Major AI Companies Use Your Data

It doesn’t matter who you are, whether a casual ChatGPT user or CEO of an enterprise company, a question that is always asked is: “How is my data used?”

The answer is: it’s probably worse than you think.

In most cases, everything is sent to US servers and recorded in storage. Yes, even if you opt out of “improve model for everyone”, or you’re using “anonymous mode”, or even DELETE your conversation. This is because the AI companies NEED your data to stay ahead. The ‘data well’ they have used to train their current models is drying up fast and with the copyright debate trending the way it is, the well shouldn’t have been drawn from in the first place. So, your chats are now a firehose they’re hooked up to.

What happens to the stored data depends on what you’ve selected. If you’re opted in to “improve model for everyone” (on by default). Your conversations are combined with everyone elses. If you’ve selected the thumbs up or thumbs down in some of your chats, this information is also included to guide the next model. This dataset is then used to train the next fleet of models.

If you’re an individual worried that the models will steal your personal ideas or personal details, don’t be, you’re a drop in the ocean of data. The model would need hundreds of thousands/millions of conversations with your ideas and personal details for it to start using them in the next release.

If you’re a big company worried about your company secrets being released. You SHOULD be. Because once you have thousands of employees having similar conversations with the AI, containing company secrets, you suddenly get to the numbers required to influence model behaviour to start using this information in its new release.

There are two ways to circumvent this:

1.       Enter bespoke agreements with the AI companies (only possible for very large companies that will pay a premium)

2.       Use the models at a programmatic level (only useful if you’re an AI engineer who knows what you’re doing)

The strategy I advise business leaders is to use, is one that leverages these systems in a way that your data never leaves your data zone. This was a necessity in the UK due to GDPR, but many Australian companies don’t realise that it’s even possible. A few years from now it will be easy to see which companies have taken data sovereignty seriously, you’ll only have to ask AI.

6 October 2025