When you review AI chat privacy controls, start with retention, deletion, model training, memory, and any mention of human review. Read the product’s current privacy page and settings, because controls and defaults can change. The documented examples below come from three vendors’ own pages, read on 2 October 2026.
Start with the useful questions
Privacy wording gets confusing when one page mixes chat history, account activity, model improvement, and saved memory. You can keep the review simple by writing down the answer to each question.
- Retention: How long is activity kept? Is there a default, a choice of periods, or a separate rule for a special chat mode?
- Deletion: Can you remove one conversation, all history, or remembered information? Is deletion available at any time?
- Model improvement: Can conversation activity be used to improve a model? Is there an opt-out, and does it apply to every chat mode?
- Human review: Does the page say that any chats are reviewed? If so, by whom and for what?
- Memory and personalization: What is kept, and what can you edit, delete, or switch off?
- Sensitive information: Does the page warn you not to enter certain details?
You are not looking for a perfect label. You are learning what happens to the words you send, what you can remove, and what you can still change.
Read the documented examples
The examples use different labels. Read each one by its stated effect, not by a familiar word.
Google’s Gemini Apps Privacy Hub says Gemini Apps Activity has a default 18-month auto-delete period. The same privacy page says you can change that setting to 3 months, 36 months, or indefinite, and that you can delete chats manually.
The Gemini Apps Privacy Hub also says temporary chats and chats made while Keep Activity is off are retained with the account for 72 hours. It says a subset of chats is reviewed by human reviewers, including Google’s trained service providers, to help improve Google services.
Microsoft’s Privacy FAQ for Microsoft Copilot says conversation activity is stored for 18 months by default, and that you can delete individual conversations or the entire history at any time. The same FAQ says you can opt out at any time from using conversation activity for model training. It also says you can edit or delete what Copilot remembers, or turn off personalization entirely at any time.
Anthropic’s Privacy Center article on model training says Incognito chats are not used to improve Claude, even if Model Improvement is enabled. Its article on data storage says you can delete your conversations at any time.
Different names do not give you a shared rule. Note the exact chat mode and stated effect instead of assuming a familiar label covers everything.
Deleting and turning off are different
Deleting and turning activity off answer different questions. A deletion control tells you whether a chat or a wider history can be removed. An activity setting concerns how activity is kept. One is not proof that the other has done the same job.
Read both descriptions slowly. Deleting a chat, deleting all history, and deleting saved memory may be separate actions. If the page does not connect them, keep that question open instead of assuming the answer.
Write down any exception for a special chat mode and any retention period attached to it. A label alone may not tell you what the control covers or what remains in place.
Before sharing something sensitive
The UK National Cyber Security Centre’s guidance on large language models says the terms of use and privacy policy need to be understood before asking sensitive questions.
That advice is easy to miss when a chat window feels ordinary. Before you enter words you would not want processed elsewhere, check what the privacy page says about retention, deletion, model improvement, human review, and memory.
Think of the policy as a map. The chat window is where you type; the policy is where you look for the stated effects. If the page uses broad words such as activity, improve, or remember, read the nearby explanation.
What Aiamis documents
Aiamis’s privacy page says the messages you send and replies are stored in the chat service’s database and deleted within 24 hours of the conversation starting. The same page says the conversation so far stays in your browser tab until you close the tab or press New chat, and that each message is cut off at 2,000 characters.
To write a reply, the Aiamis privacy page says your message and earlier messages from the same conversation are sent to an AI model provider, which processes the text on its own servers under its own terms. The page asks you not to type passwords, card or bank numbers, identity numbers, your address, or private details about other people. That warning gives you a simple rule: do not enter information you would not want another service to process.
Aiamis’s privacy page says conversations are not forwarded to staff or reviewed as they happen, although service maintainers have technical access to the database for up to 24 hours. Along with the conversation, the page says a random conversation ID, time, page address, language, and a two-letter country code are stored and deleted with it; the IP address itself is not stored with the conversation.
The Aiamis privacy page says no advertising cookies or cross-site trackers are used, and visits are counted with a cookieless analytics tool that shows totals only. Because conversations are not linked to an identity, Aiamis says it usually cannot find a particular conversation to send or delete on request.
The practical point is to check both what leaves your browser for processing and what remains in the service.
Make one quick pass
Make your review easy to repeat. Keep one line for retention, deletion, model improvement, human review, and memory. Record the default, available choice, and exception only where the page names them.
If a line is empty, write not stated rather than filling it with a guess. Before changing a control, check which chats it covers and what it leaves in place. If a label is not where you expected, follow the current privacy page rather than an old note.
Take your time with the wording. A setting is easier to manage when you know what it covers, what it changes, and what it leaves alone. That is enough to make a calm, informed choice.