9 Total
0 High severity
6 Medium severity
3 Low severity
Summary

This is OpenAI's US Privacy Policy for consumer services including ChatGPT and Sora, covering what personal data the company collects, how it is used, and what controls users have. The policy authorizes use of user-submitted content, including prompts, uploaded files, images, and audio, to train AI models, subject to an opt-out available in account settings; it also discloses that Free and Go users' data is used to personalize advertising shown within the services, with purchase data potentially received from third-party advertisers to measure ad effectiveness. The policy further discloses that users who connect their device contacts allow OpenAI to upload that address book data and track when non-users in that contact list later sign up for the service.

Technical / Legal Breakdown

This document is OpenAI's US Privacy Policy (effective May 18, 2026), governing personal data collection, use, retention, and disclosure for users of OpenAI's consumer-facing services including ChatGPT and Sora; it explicitly excludes data processed on behalf of API customers, which is governed by separate customer agreements. The policy states that OpenAI collects identifiers, device information, log and usage data, geolocation data, user-submitted content (including prompts, files, images, audio, video, and address book contacts), commercial transaction history, and data received from advertising partners and third-party data sources; the terms authorize use of this data to provide services, conduct research, train AI models (subject to user opt-out), personalize advertising for Free and Go users, and share limited data with marketing partners for cross-context behavioral advertising. The policy authorizes collection of device contacts and notification of users when non-enrolled contacts later join the service, asserts broad retention authority for safety, fraud, legal, and financial recordkeeping purposes including after user-initiated deletion, and discloses that advertiser-provided purchase data may be received to measure ad effectiveness. The policy references engagement with GDPR (for EEA and Swiss users under a separate policy version), US state privacy laws including California, and COPPA-adjacent obligations for users under 13; applicability of specific state privacy rights depends on jurisdiction, and the document acknowledges that data is processed on servers in the United States and other jurisdictions under legally valid transfer mechanisms. Material compliance considerations include the scope of model training data use and opt-out mechanisms, the contact data upload feature covering non-users, the cross-context behavioral advertising disclosure and opt-out pathway, and the retention of data post-deletion for enumerated legitimate purposes.

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17 important changes detected

18 versions captured · Last updated: July 2026

What changed OpenAI updated its privacy policy on July 9, 2026 to explicitly disclose advertising-related data use for Free and Go users. The policy now states that OpenAI receives information from advertisers and data partners, which is used to personalize ads and measure ad effectiveness on its Services. The updated language establishes a dedicated section describing ad personalization purposes and adds user controls in account settings to manage which data is used for ad targeting.
Why this matters The updated policy discloses that OpenAI receives information from advertisers and data partners to personalize ads shown to Free and Go users and to measure ad effectiveness. The revised language adds a new stated purpose: 'For Free and Go users, to personalize the ads you see on our Services (subject to your settings), and to measure the effectiveness of ads shown on our Services.' The policy now states that Free and Go users can access advertising controls in their account settings to control which data is used to personalize ads. You can use the advertising controls in your account settings to control what data OpenAI uses to personalize the ads shown to you on its Services.
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June 12, 2026

medium
What changed OpenAI updated its privacy policy on June 12, 2026 to restructure how it describes data use and advertising practices. The policy removed language stating that OpenAI receives information from advertisers and data partners for measuring ad effectiveness on Free and Go users, while adding new regional guidance for South Korean users. The policy also added explicit language authorizing OpenAI to identify contacts who use its services and to monitor content for fraud prevention, previously buried in separate documentation. Separately, the policy removed a specific mechanism allowing Free and Go users to control personalized ad data through account settings.
Why this matters The updated policy removes language describing how OpenAI uses advertiser and data partner information to personalize ads and measure ad effectiveness. The policy also removes the specific mechanism Free and Go users previously had to control ad personalization through account settings. In exchange, the policy adds explicit authorization for OpenAI to identify which of a user's contacts use OpenAI services and to monitor all content submitted on the platform for fraud and misuse detection. The authorization to monitor content and identify contacts now appears in the main policy purposes section rather than in supplementary documentation. You can review the Korea Addendum if you are located in South Korea to understand region-specific privacy rules.
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June 12, 2026 medium

OpenAI's privacy policy was restructured on June 12, 2026, adding a table of contents and clarifying how personal data is used. The most material change is new language explicitly disclosing …

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June 9, 2026 medium

OpenAI updated its privacy policy on June 9, 2026, removing specific language about ad personalization controls for Free and Go users while adding language directing Korean users to a separate …

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June 8, 2026 low

OpenAI removed language identifying this as a US-specific privacy policy and collapsed a multilingual language selector into an ellipsis (…) in the document header on June 8, 2026. Previously, the …

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June 7, 2026 medium

OpenAI updated its privacy policy on June 7, 2026 to add explicit language about how it collects and uses advertising data for Free and Go users. The updated policy now …

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May 27, 2026 medium

OpenAI removed specific language about collecting advertiser data for ad targeting on free and paid tiers, but simultaneously removed user-facing controls for managing ad personalization. The policy now consolidates ad-related …

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May 23, 2026 low

OpenAI updated the language selector in their Privacy Policy header on May 23, 2026. The change modified the spelling and formatting of several language names and codes in the multilingual …

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May 19, 2026 low

OpenAI modified two sentences in its US Privacy Policy on May 19, 2026. The document timestamp was updated from April 30, 2026 to May 18, 2026. More substantially, the opt-out …

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May 14, 2026 medium

OpenAI updated its privacy request procedures on May 14, 2026. Previously, the policy stated users could exercise privacy rights by submitting requests through privacy.openai.com or dsar@openai.com. The updated language now …

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May 11, 2026 medium

OpenAI updated its privacy policy on May 11, 2026 to explicitly authorize the collection and use of advertiser data from partners and to create a new ad personalization purpose for …

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May 9, 2026 low

OpenAI's Privacy Policy was updated on May 9, 2026 with a single language modification in the document header. The change added Persian (فارسی) to the list of available language options …

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May 5, 2026 medium

OpenAI removed language describing advertiser data partnerships and ad personalization controls for free users, while also removing the specific statement that free and go users could control ad personalization through …

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May 2, 2026 low

OpenAI added a new statement clarifying that sensitive data is not processed to infer characteristics about users. The policy also changed how users who are not logged in can exercise …

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May 1, 2026 medium

OpenAI updated its Privacy Policy on May 1, 2026 to add explicit language about direct marketing to users and disclosure of data sharing with marketing partners. The policy now states …

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April 22, 2026 medium

OpenAI removed language describing a separate category of marketing partners and the cookie-based data sharing practices used with those partners. The updated policy now consolidates all third-party recipients under a …

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March 6, 2026 low

OpenAI's privacy policy was updated on March 6, 2026, with changes to how it describes data uses and disclosures. The updated policy removed explicit language about receiving data from advertisers …

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Featured — Medium severity
Featured — Low severity

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Mapped Governance Frameworks

CCPA/CPRA
California, USA
View official text ↗
FTC Act Section 5
United States Federal
View official text ↗
GDPR
European Union
View official text ↗
UK GDPR
United Kingdom
View official text ↗

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Archival ProvenanceSource & Archival Record
Last Captured July 9, 2026 00:01 UTC
Capture Method Automated scheduled archival capture
Document ID CA-D-000010
Version ID CA-V-004622
SHA-256 c0c49f013e1bb2dd1fa883d161d2b79a60a5914fddbd230bcaa0df5e2cfaa86e
✓ Snapshot stored ✓ Text extracted ✓ Change verified ✓ Hash verified

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