How we’re responding to The New York Times’ data demands in order to protect user privacy

Update on October 22, 2025: 

After months of litigation, we are no longer under a legal order to retain consumer ChatGPT and API content indefinitely. Our obligations under the earlier order ended on September 26, 2025.

• Deleted ChatGPT conversations and Temporary Chats will be automatically deleted from our systems within 30 days⁠(opens in a new window).

• API data will also be automatically deleted after 30 days.⁠(opens in a new window)

The New York Times continues to demand that OpenAI keep a specific set of user data from April-September 2025. So while we’re no longer required to indefinitely retain new user data going forward or any conversations originating from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom, we will securely store limited historical April–September 2025 user data. It remains locked down, accessible only to a small, audited OpenAI legal and security team, and can’t be used for anything other than meeting legal obligations. This data will not be turned over to the New York Times, the Court, or anyone else at this time. We will continue to fight these overreaches by the New York Times and defend long-standing privacy norms.

Trust and privacy are at the core of our products.

We give you tools to control your data—including easy opt-outs and permanent removal of deleted ChatGPT chats⁠(opens in a new window) and API content from OpenAI’s systems within 30 days.

The New York Times and other plaintiffs have made a sweeping and unnecessary demand in their baseless lawsuit against us: retain consumer ChatGPT and API customer data indefinitely.

This fundamentally conflicts with the privacy commitments we have made to our users. It abandons long-standing privacy norms and weakens privacy protections.

We strongly believe this is an overreach by the New York Times. We’re continuing to appeal this order so we can keep putting your trust and privacy first.

—Brad Lightcap, COO, OpenAI

Answers to your questions

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