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Learn more about our cookie policyTemporary Chats Aren't Temporary: What Major AI Apps Actually Retain
"Incognito" or "temporary" modes hide chats from your history — but vendor infrastructure may still keep copies for days. Here's what the documentation says, and why it matters for GDPR teams.
AI·Collab: Instant wipe on "New Chat"
At AI·Collab, we built temporary chats the way users expect them to work. When you close a temporary chat or click "New Chat", the conversation, your uploaded files, and all context are instantly wiped from the active session. No 30-day "safety" copies. No 72-hour holds. It is gone immediately. Because we enforce Zero Data Retention (ZDRP) by default on German servers, "private" describes how our entire infrastructure handles data — not just what disappears from your sidebar.
How to enable Temporary Chat on AI·Collab (Open WebUI)
On chat.aicollab.app it takes two clicks for a single private session:
- Start a fresh conversation (New chat / +).
- In the chat header on the right, select the Temporary Chat pill so it is active. That is the entire flow for one-off temporary mode.
Temporary Chat toggle in the header (right side).
Temporary mode applies only to the chat you have open. After you click New chat again, the next thread is a normal chat until you tap Temporary Chat once more.
Optional: default every new chat to temporary
If you want every new conversation to open in temporary mode until you turn it off:
- In the sidebar footer (bottom-left), open your profile, then tap Settings (gear icon).
- Open the Interface section.
- Turn on Temporary chat by default.
In the chat UI, open the profile area at the bottom of the left sidebar, choose Settings, then Interface — enable “Temporary chat by default”. Menu labels may be in English even in a German locale.
The "private chat" illusion
Many teams assume that if a conversation doesn't appear in chat history, it no longer exists anywhere. For vendor-hosted AI, that is often false. Vendor documentation distinguishes between (a) what you can see in the product UI and (b) what may still be retained on their systems for safety, abuse review, feedback, or API/compliance tooling. For DPIAs, subprocessors, and customer-facing privacy answers, the second point is what ends up in your register — not the label on the button.
What vendors disclose about "temporary" modes
Short summary only — always read the latest source. Policies can change and may differ by plan (consumer vs enterprise).
| Provider | Private / temporary mode | Disclosed server-side retention |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (OpenAI) | Temporary Chat | Up to 30 days may still be kept for safety; not shown in history; not used for training. Enterprise note: temporary chats may appear in Compliance API for 30 days. |
| Claude (Anthropic) | Incognito | Not in history or Claude memory; not used for training. Retained up to ~30 days for security per Anthropic help docs (longer if flagged / org policy). |
| Gemini (Google) | Temporary Chat | Not in recent chats / Apps Activity; not used for personalization or training. Kept up to 72 hours to operate the conversation and process optional feedback (Google product blog). |
Cited from vendor help/blog pages as of April 2026. This article is informational, not legal advice.
Why procurement and DPOs should care
GDPR storage limitation (Article 5(1)(e)) requires that personal data not be kept longer than necessary for the purpose. When staff paste client or employee data into AI tools, your organisation must understand subprocessors' real retention — including for modes marketed as private. Long legal retention for invoices after a contract ends (tax/accounting) is a separate topic: it is purpose-specific. Opaque multi-day AI vendor retention for "temporary" chats is another line item in your mapping — and harder to explain to end customers if you have no contract with them anymore.
Quick checklist for your documentation
- Map each AI tool's "temporary" or "incognito" mode to vendor retention, not UI wording.
- Update your subprocessor / ROPA entries when vendors publish retention changes.
- Separate legal retention (invoices, HR) from inference-time copies at model providers.
- Prefer processors and routing where retention is contractually clear and minimal.
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