Claude
Is Claude safe? Anthropic encrypts chats in transit and at rest and holds SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications.
- Made by
- Anthropic
- Company based in
- United States
- Trains on your chats
- You choose when prompted
- People can read chats
- Limited
- Temporary chat mode
- Yes
- Chats used for ads
- No
- Minimum age
- 18
- Regulator actions listed
- 0
- Checked on
On Free, Pro and Max plans, whether your chats train its models depends on the “Help improve Claude” setting, which Anthropic asks every user to choose. With it on, chats are kept de-identified for up to 5 years; with it off, the 30-day retention period applies. Employees cannot access conversations by default, except when you send feedback or a chat is flagged for a Usage Policy review.
Commercial products (Claude for Work, the API) are not used for training by default. Incognito chats are not saved to history and not used for training. Claude has no ads, and Anthropic said in February 2026 it will remain ad-free. The minimum age is 18.
We found no data protection regulator action against Anthropic on regulators’ own sites, and Anthropic has not disclosed an incident exposing Claude users’ data.
- Company responsible for your data
- Anthropic, PBC; Anthropic Ireland, Limited for the EEA, UK and Switzerland
- What is used for training
- Chats and coding sessions are used for training if you allow it via the "Help improve Claude" model-improvement setting. Regardless of that setting, conversations flagged for safety review and feedback you submit (thumbs up/down) can also be used. Training data covers the whole conversation, custom styles and Claude for Chrome data, but not raw connector content (e.g. Google Drive, MCP) unless it is pasted into the chat. Incognito chats are never used.
- How to turn training off
- Desktop/browser: select your name > Settings > Privacy > under "Help Improve our AI models" toggle off (direct: claude.ai/settings/data-privacy-controls). Mobile: your name > Settings > Privacy > toggle off. Turning it off stops use of previous and new chats in future training runs, but not in runs already in progress or models already trained.
- Business and API plans
- "By default, we will not use your inputs or outputs from our commercial products (e.g. Claude for Work, Anthropic API, Claude Gov, etc.) to train our models," unless you submit feedback or join the Development Partner Program.
- How long chats are kept
- If model improvement is on, data from new or resumed chats is kept de-identified "for up to 5 years" in training pipelines. If it is off, Anthropic's announcement says the existing "30-day data retention period" applies. Chats flagged for Usage Policy violations: inputs/outputs kept up to 2 years and trust-and-safety classification scores up to 7 years. Feedback submissions are kept 5 years.
- After you delete a chat or account
- A deleted conversation is "removed from your chat history immediately" and "deleted from our back-end storage systems within 30 days"; deleted chats are not used for future training. Account closure is done by contacting support@anthropic.com (per consumer terms).
- Human review
- Limited. "By default, Anthropic employees cannot access your conversations" unless you share them as feedback or review is needed to enforce the Usage Policy, in which case "only designated members of our Trust & Safety team may access this data on a need-to-know basis."
- Temporary chat
- Incognito chats (ghost icon): not saved to chat history or memory and not used for training. They are retained for 30 days for safety; on Enterprise plans they follow the organisation's retention setting.
- Where data is stored
- Personal data "is transferred to our servers in the US, or to other countries outside the European Economic Area" for service, training and research, using adequacy decisions and Standard Contractual Clauses. Affiliates and third-party locations are listed in the Trust Center.
- Age rules
- 18 (or the minimum age to consent in your location, whichever is higher). The privacy policy says services are not directed to under-18s.
- Ads
- No ads. Anthropic stated on Feb 4, 2026 that "Claude will remain ad-free" with no sponsored links or advertiser influence, while reserving the right to revisit this. The privacy policy says Anthropic does not "sell" personal data; you can opt out of sharing data for targeted advertising of Anthropic's own products.
- Security and certifications
- Consumer data "is automatically encrypted both while in transit, and stored (at rest)"; access is least-privilege and requires multi-factor authentication. Certifications: SOC 2 Type I & Type II, ISO 27001:2022, ISO/IEC 42001:2023, and a HIPAA-ready configuration (BAA available). Trust Center: https://trust.anthropic.com
- Privacy policy
- anthropic.com
- Terms
- anthropic.com
- Data controls help page
- privacy.claude.com
- Sources
Page URL Anthropic Privacy Policy (published Jun 8, 2026, effective Jul 8, 2026) https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy Anthropic Consumer Terms of Service (effective Oct 8, 2025) https://www.anthropic.com/legal/consumer-terms Privacy Center: How long do you store my data? (Jul 1, 2026) https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/10023548-how-long-do-you-store-my-data Privacy Center: Is my data used for model training? (consumer) https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/10023580-is-my-data-used-for-model-training Privacy Center: Is my data used for model training? (commercial) https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/7996868-is-my-data-used-for-model-training Privacy Center: How do I change my model improvement privacy settings? https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/12109829-how-do-i-change-my-model-improvement-privacy-settings Privacy Center: How does Anthropic protect the personal data of Claude users? https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/10458704-how-does-anthropic-protect-the-personal-data-of-claude-users Privacy Center: What certifications has Anthropic obtained? https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/10015870-what-certifications-has-anthropic-obtained Help Center: Use incognito chats https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12260368-use-incognito-chats Anthropic news: Updates to Consumer Terms and Privacy Policy (Aug 28, 2025) https://www.anthropic.com/news/updates-to-our-consumer-terms Anthropic news: Claude is a space to think (Feb 4, 2026) https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-is-a-space-to-think Anthropic news: Investigating three real-world incidents in our cybersecurity evaluations https://www.anthropic.com/news/investigating-incidents-cybersecurity-evals Anthropic news: An alignment assessment of recent cybersecurity incidents https://www.anthropic.com/news/alignment-assessment-cybersecurity-incidents