Check what an AI service does with the information you type

You are about to paste meeting notes or a draft into an AI service. What happens to your text after you send it? Services keep conversations for different lengths of time, some use them to develop models, and work accounts may have different terms from personal accounts. Checking the service's own guidance and your account settings gives you a dated note with three answers and helps you decide what material to share.

Three things to find out

1. Retention: how long your conversations are kept and whether that changes if you turn the setting off.
2. Model development: whether your conversations are used to improve models and whether you can opt out.
3. Account type: whether the answer applies to the account you actually use, such as a personal, paid or work account.

Check a service in five steps

1. 1

   Open the provider's own guidance

   Look in the service's help or privacy centre for an article about how conversations are stored and used. Check the service you use, rather than just the model: the same model can be available through different services under different terms.

2. 2

   Find the setting in your account

   Open your account settings and look for the section on conversation history, activity or model improvement. The setting's name varies between services.

3. 3

   Compare the setting with the guidance

   Check what the guidance says about this particular setting: what happens when it is on and what happens when it is off.

4. 4

   Record the answers and the date

   Write down the three answers, the guidance's address and the date you checked. Terms change, so the date shows when the information applied.

5. 5

   Decide what material to share

   If the answers do not suit your material, change the setting, remove identifying details or do not share the material.

Example: Gemini Apps

You are planning to paste an association's meeting notes into Gemini. You open Google's Gemini Apps Privacy Hub and the Gemini Apps Activity section in your personal account. The Keep Activity setting is on. Your note looks like this:

• Retention: the setting is on and the auto-delete period is the default, 18 months. If a reviewer reads a conversation, it is kept separately from my account for up to three years. If I turn the setting off, new conversations are kept in my account for 72 hours.
• Model development: Google can currently also use my conversations to train models. If I turn the setting off and do not give feedback, new conversations will not be used for that. The setting does not cover Google's processing of conversations to create anonymised data to improve its services, and a reviewer may still read some conversations for safety reasons.
• Account type: I checked a personal account. Different terms may apply to work or school accounts.
• Source: support.google.com/gemini/answer/13594961, updated 10 August 2026, checked 11 September 2026.
• Decision: I will remove names and phone numbers from the notes before pasting them, because a reviewer may read the conversation regardless of the setting.

A general notice does not answer a specific question

A general privacy notice might say that a company uses information to develop its services. It usually does not tell you whether your particular conversations are used to train models, how long they are kept or whether you can choose otherwise. You can find these details in the service's more specific guidance and your account settings.

Tell me what I need to check in an AI service's own privacy guidance before using it for a sensitive matter. List the questions: conversation retention, use for model development and opting out, and how account type affects this. Do not state the service's terms, because you do not know their current content.

Common stumbling blocks

• You ask the service about its own terms. The assistant may invent setting names or give outdated information. Find the answer in the provider's own guidance.
• You assume a paid subscription changes everything. A paid consumer account may follow the same policy as a free one. Check the guidance for the account you use.
• You check a personal account even though you use a work account. Work and school accounts may be governed by the organisation's agreement. Check the guidance or ask your organisation's administrator.
• You check once and never again. Terms and settings change. Record the date you checked and revisit the issue when the guidance changes or your material becomes more sensitive.

Trim your material before sharing it

Your notes on retention, model development and account type help you decide what material to share. Include identifying details only if the task really needs them.

1. Compare your material with your three answers: the retention period, model development and the account type you use.
2. If you do not accept what those answers mean for this material, change the setting, hide details the task does not need or do not share the material.
3. Record your decision and check that the information needed for the task remains.

A one-minute check

• Do you know how long your conversations are kept?
• Do you know whether they are used to develop models and whether you can choose otherwise?
• Does the information you found apply to the account you actually use?
• Does your note include the guidance's address and the date you checked?
• Do you accept the handling documented in the guidance and settings for the material you plan to share?