You have a ten page PDF and no patience left.
So you drag it into Claude and ask for a summary.
Perfectly sensible.
It is just worth knowing that the file is now treated exactly like something you typed out yourself.
Are uploaded files handled differently from my messages?
No, and that is the whole point.
Once a file or an image is uploaded, it becomes part of the conversation.
It is handled like your messages, not parked somewhere separate.
So the same three rules follow it.
It is used to answer you now.
It is used for training only if you have opted in.
And it has the same retention: kept around 30 days, or up to five years if training is switched on.
Retention simply means how long a copy is stored before it is cleared.
Does that apply to screenshots too?
Yes, and screenshots are where people get careless.
A screenshot of a bank statement is a bank statement.
A screenshot of a WhatsApp thread is that whole thread, names and numbers included.
The app has no idea it is looking at something sensitive.
You do, so crop the image before you upload it, or blur the parts that have nothing to do with your question.
Ten seconds of cropping is easier than wishing you had.
Is there any exception to this?
One, and it is connectors.
A connector is a live link to another tool, such as Google Drive or an MCP server, that lets Claude read from it directly.
Content that Claude reads through a connector is not used for training.
Unless you copy that content directly into the chat yourself, at which point it is an ordinary message again.
So the route the file takes matters as much as the file does.
If you have the choice, let the connector read it rather than pasting it in.
Things to Remember
- Treat every upload as a message you have typed out by hand.
- Uploads are used for training only if you have opted in.
- Files are kept about 30 days, or up to five years if training is on.
- Crop or blur screenshots before you send them.
- Content read through a connector stays out of training unless you paste it in.