Windsurf uses everything you type into the Chat feature — your code, questions, and prompts — to train its AI models. If you want to stop this, you lose access to the Chat feature entirely.
Users' Chat content — potentially including proprietary code, business logic, and sensitive inputs — is used to train Windsurf's generative AI models by default, and exercising the opt-out right completely disables the Chat/Cascade service, effectively penalizing privacy-conscious users.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Chat Data Used for AI Training — Opt-Out Disables Service and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →This creates a coercive 'all-or-nothing' choice: either allow your code and chat content to train commercial AI models, or lose a core product feature. There is no middle ground where you can use Chat without contributing your data to AI training.
(1) REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision directly implicates GDPR Art. 7(4) (freely given consent — consent tied to service access is presumed not freely given), Art. 6(1)(a) (lawfulness of processing based on consent), and Art. 5(1)(b) (purpose limitation). Under CCPA §1798.120, California residents have the right to opt out of the 'sale' or 'sharing' of personal information; if Chat content constitutes personal information used in AI training that confers commercial benefit, this opt-out mechanism may be inadequate. The FTC Act Section 5 framework applies to conditioning privacy rights on service forfeiture. The EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) may impose additional transparency and data governance obligations on AI systems using user-generated training data. (2)
Compliance intelligence locked
Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.
Watcher: regulatory citations. Professional: full compliance memo.