How to Protect Your Privacy When Using AI Tools

When you ask a chatbot for help drafting an email or an image generator to create a picture, you are handing over more than just a request. Most popular AI tools collect the text you type, the files you upload, and sometimes even the way you interact with the interface. A recent Wall Street Journal article, “How to Maintain Our Privacy in the AI Age,” brought these trade-offs into sharp focus, prompting a wider conversation about what users can do to keep their data private without giving up the benefits of AI.

What Happened

The WSJ piece, published June 23, 2026, outlined how major AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot log user conversations and may use them to improve their models. In many cases, the data is stored on company servers and can be shared with third-party contractors for review. The article also noted that most users remain unaware of the settings that allow them to opt out of having their data used for training. While the companies have published privacy policies, the trade-off between convenience and privacy is rarely spelled out clearly in everyday use.

Why It Matters

The data you share with an AI assistant can include sensitive details: personal names, medical concerns, financial figures, legal questions, or proprietary business information. Once submitted, that information may leave your control. It can be retained, reviewed by human annotators, or even exposed in a breach. Because generative AI models are trained on the inputs they receive, anything you type into a public chatbot is a potential contribution to its future knowledge. That raises real questions about confidentiality and consent, especially as these tools become embedded in daily workflows.

What Readers Can Do

The good news is that you don’t need to stop using AI to protect your privacy. A few straightforward steps can reduce your exposure.

1. Understand what each tool collects.
ChatGPT (OpenAI) stores conversations and may use them for training unless you disable that setting. Google Gemini logs queries and associates them with your Google account; Workspace accounts offer different controls than personal accounts. Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) follows similar practices. Always check the privacy policy of the tool you are using, and note whether it offers an opt-out for training data.

2. Adjust your settings.

  • For ChatGPT: Go to Settings > Data Controls and turn off “Chat History & Training.” This will delete your conversations after a period and prevent them from being used for model training.
  • For Google Gemini: In your Google Account, navigate to “Data & Privacy” and look for “Gemini Apps Activity.” You can turn off activity saving or auto-delete older entries.
  • For Microsoft Copilot: Visit the “Privacy” settings in your Microsoft account to manage chat history and turn off “Improve AI models.”

3. Practice good prompt hygiene.
Before hitting send, ask yourself: Does the prompt contain anything you wouldn’t put in a public post? Treat AI prompts like semi-public messages. Never include passwords, social security numbers, health records, or other sensitive identifiers. If you need to work with sensitive data, consider using a local AI model that runs entirely on your device.

4. Consider offline or private alternatives.
For tasks that involve confidential information, local language models like Llama 2 (from Meta) or GPT4All can run on your own computer or server. They require some technical setup but eliminate the risk of data leaving your machine. Several paid and free tools now offer end-to-end encryption for queries, though these are still less common than cloud-based options.

5. Know your legal rights.
If you live in the European Union or California, you have additional protections. Under GDPR and CCPA, you have the right to ask companies to tell you what data they hold about you, to have it deleted, and to opt out of certain types of processing, including data used for training AI. Companies are required to honor these requests, though the process can be slow.

Sources

No single setting or habit will make you invisible online, but these actions give you more control over who sees what you share. The convenience of AI doesn’t have to mean surrendering your privacy—if you know where the levers are.