Manage Your ChatGPT Data What It Knows And How To Erase

ChatGPT, the AI chatbot, has a knack for remembering details from your conversations. This can be helpful, but it also means it might be storing personal information you'd prefer it didn't. It's important to know that ChatGPT stores a lot of personal information about users. Let's explore what ChatGPT might know about you and how you can manage or even erase this data from its memory.

If you've used ChatGPT extensively, it may have gathered a significant amount of information about you, potentially including details you'd rather keep private. Here’s your guide to understanding and controlling what ChatGPT remembers.

How ChatGPT Stores Your Personal Information

ChatGPT gathers information from your interactions and saves these pieces of data to recall later. For instance, it might note your job, where you reside, and your hobbies to offer more relevant answers in the future. (And it often knows much more, as we'll see).

You'll often notice a visual cue, an “Updated saved memory” label, appearing in your chats when ChatGPT saves a fact about you. Clicking this label reveals the specific piece of information the AI has stored for later use. ChatGPT can harvest various snippets of information from your discussions.

How To Find Out What ChatGPT Knows About You

You don't need to wait for those labels to appear. You can directly ask ChatGPT to disclose what it has stored about you.

Use this prompt:

What do you know about me?

This method works if you are logged into your ChatGPT account. The memory feature now applies to both free and paid account holders; previously, a subscription was needed for the AI to remember details.

When this prompt was tested, ChatGPT listed many facts, including books/articles being written, current residence, potential new locations, and music preferences.

It had also stored some very personal data, like ongoing health issues, information about children, and details concerning personal finances. It’s important to clarify that this information was voluntarily provided to the AI; it doesn't conduct its own background checks (to our current knowledge). However, this is still data you might not want the AI to retain indefinitely.

How To Correct Memories Stored By ChatGPT

After providing the list of stored facts, ChatGPT often asks: “Would you like me to forget or update any of this?”

For example, if you had used ChatGPT while researching a new car, its stored facts might include a list of shortlisted cars. If you then informed ChatGPT, “I have bought the car and it’s a Honda Jazz Hybrid,” it would update its memory, indicated by the “updated saved memory” label. It might then respond with something like, “If you ever want help with maintenance tips, fuel efficiency tracking, or setting up Android Auto in your Honda Jazz Hybrid, just shout.”

How To Make ChatGPT Forget Memories

You have the ability to make ChatGPT forget your personal information. If you click on an “Updated saved memory” label, you will see an option to Manage memories. Alternatively, access this menu by clicking your profile icon, then navigating to Settings > Personalization, and finally clicking the Manage memories link (found in small text under the Reference saved memories option).

This will display a full list of facts ChatGPT has stored about you. You can delete individual facts by clicking the small bin icon next to each, or choose Delete All at the bottom to wipe its memory clean.

To prevent ChatGPT from storing any personal information going forward, return to the previous screen and turn off the Reference saved memories switch.

How To Chat Confidentially With ChatGPT

If you need to discuss a personal matter or something you don’t want ChatGPT to remember, you can use a temporary chat. Activate these by clicking the dotted speech bubble icon located next to your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen.

In temporary chat mode, the AI will not save any part of the conversation to its memory, nor will the chat appear in your history. Once you leave the chat window, you cannot return to it. So, if there’s any crucial information you need to keep, make sure to copy and paste it out of the chat or take screenshots.

How To Secure Your ChatGPT Account

While you might be okay with ChatGPT storing your personal details, you certainly don’t want unauthorized individuals accessing your account and that information. Therefore, enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) is a sensible step to greatly reduce the risk of account breaches.

To activate 2FA, click on your profile icon, then select Settings. Choose Security from the Settings menu and then click to enable multi-factor authentication.

You will be presented with a QR code for use with an authenticator app like Authy. After registering, you’ll need to enter a six-digit code from your authenticator app each time you log into ChatGPT from a new device. This ensures that even if someone obtains your password, they cannot access your account without the authenticator code.

You can find out what ChatGPT knows about you, but with proper account security, no one else should.