This analysis describes what Cursor's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This establishes an explicit exception to ZDR commitments: abuse-triggered data may be retained by model providers or Cursor outside the standard zero-retention framework.
The updated policy clarifies that Cursor maintains zero data retention agreements with all AI model providers and customer data will not be used for training by Cursor. However, the policy now explicitly discloses that model providers may run risk classifiers to detect policy violations, and if your prompts or conversations trigger abuse detectors, your data may be stored for investigation and deleted according to the provider's retention policies. The policy removed the previous blanket statement that code would never be trained on by Cursor or third parties, replacing it with more specific disclosure of abuse detection practices. You can review OpenAI and Anthropic's documentation directly for details on their specific retention policies.
View change record →If the reader's prompts or conversations trigger an abuse detector, that data may be stored for investigation by model providers or Cursor, notwithstanding any ZDR agreements.
How other platforms handle this
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of the information...
In limited circumstances, we may retain certain information for purposes including safety, security, fraud prevention, and compliance with our legal obligations.
We collect and keep personal data only as needed or allowed for the purposes set out in this Statement, based on the reason we collected the personal data in the first instance and what is permitted under the laws that apply to the processing.
"model providers (including Cursor) may run risk classifiers to detect violations of terms and usage policies, and if your prompts or conversations trigger abuse detectors your data may be stored for investigation...Excerpt from Cursor's Data Use & Privacy Overview
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This establishes an explicit exception to ZDR commitments: abuse-triggered data may be retained by model providers or Cursor outside the standard zero-retention framework.
If the reader's prompts or conversations trigger an abuse detector, that data may be stored for investigation by model providers or Cursor, notwithstanding any ZDR agreements.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 275 platforms. See the full comparison.
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