OpenAI has given ChatGPT a Privacy Center. It is a single screen that pulls together what the service records about you, with links to the settings that control it. The ChatGPT Privacy Center appears in OpenAI’s release notes with a September 21, 2026 entry. It is rolling out to signed-in users across the consumer plans. The controls themselves have not moved, and OpenAI says they still live in ChatGPT Settings.
Which accounts are covered:
- Included: signed-in Free, Go, Plus and Pro users, plus Business accounts
- Not included: ChatGPT Enterprise, Edu and ChatGPT for Healthcare
The rollout is gradual. OpenAI’s help page notes that individual features depend on your plan, region, account and workspace settings. If the entry is missing for you, it may not have reached your account or app version yet.
How to open the ChatGPT Privacy Center
- On the web: open your account menu, select
Help, then selectPrivacy center. - On mobile: open
Settings, then selectPrivacy Centeron iOS orPrivacy centeron Android. - On the desktop app: check the app’s
Helpmenu. If it listsPrivacy center, selecting it opens the Privacy Center in your browser.
Notebookcheck also points to a direct address at chatgpt.com/privacy-center for anyone who would rather skip the menus.
What it actually shows you
The page groups explanations and links into three buckets. Nothing here is a new control. It is a map of controls that were already scattered across the settings tree.
- Personalized chats and ads: Memory, Personalized ads and Location
- Chat privacy: Temporary chat
- Data use and access: Plugins and apps, MFA, Model improvement, and data export or deletion
The ads section, and what it means in India
The entry Indian readers most need context on is Personalized ads. OpenAI’s documentation says ads may appear for eligible Free and Go users. Every other plan is exempt. Plus and Pro subscribers do not get ads, and neither do Business, Enterprise, Edu or Healthcare accounts.
That does not mean Go users in India are seeing ads. OpenAI’s ads help page, as of September 23, describes a test that began in the United States in February 2026. The same page says ads and the Ads-Free controls may only appear in regions where ads are being tested. On that basis, the ads rows here document a feature live in the US test regions. OpenAI says the test began in the US, and its help pages do not list India among the test regions.
Two details are worth knowing in case ad testing expands. Ad controls sit under Settings > Ad Controls. Switching off personalisation does not remove ads. OpenAI says you will still see ads chosen from the context of your current chat thread. There is also an Ads-Free option, and OpenAI spells out its cost. It removes ads but brings lower usage limits and reduced feature access. That includes fewer messages and no access to tools such as image generation or deep research.
Documenting that tradeoff honestly is welcome, but it is not a favour. Ads pay for the cheap tiers, and the way out costs you features instead.
The setting most personal users should check
The Privacy Center’s Model improvement link is the one worth opening first. OpenAI does not use content from Business, Enterprise, Edu or Healthcare workspaces to train its models by default. Personal plans do not get that promise. If you have never turned the option off, your new conversations can be used to train OpenAI’s models.
To change it, go to Settings > Data controls and turn off Improve the model for everyone. OpenAI offers a second route as well. Its privacy portal at privacy.openai.com carries a Do not train on my content request.
Reading your settings is not the same as fixing them
This is the part to be clear-eyed about. The Privacy Center is a directory, not a switch. OpenAI says as much in its own documentation: “Opening the privacy center does not change your settings, delete your data, or override your organization’s policies.”
Putting these explanations in one place is a real improvement. But defaults decide what happens to most people’s chats, because many never open settings at all. On personal plans, you have to switch the training toggle off yourself. The new page makes that work visible without doing any of it for you. Treat it as a checklist to work through once, not a reassurance to glance at.
Our earlier piece on ChatGPT chats turning up in court has the wider context. It covers what your chat history can be pulled into later.
Sources: OpenAI Help Center release notes, Privacy Center in ChatGPT, Ads in ChatGPT, Data Controls FAQ, via Notebookcheck
