Before you touch a single privacy setting, one thing has already been decided for you.
It is which plan you are on.
Consumer and commercial plans run on two completely different rulebooks.
Everything else you can adjust sits on top of that.
What does the consumer rulebook say?
Free, Pro and Max sit here.
They are governed by the Consumer Terms.
Under those terms your chats can be used to improve Claude's models, but only if you opt in.
Claude will not train on them unless you turn it on.
So on a personal plan, training is a switch, and the switch belongs to you.
And the commercial one?
Team, Enterprise and the API sit here, along with Education, Gov and Bedrock or Vertex.
They are governed by the Commercial Terms.
Under those terms your data is not used for model training by default.
There is no opt-in or opt-out toggle to go hunting for.
It is contractual, meaning it is settled by the agreement rather than by a setting.
That is a stronger promise, because nobody can flip it by accident.
What is "shadow AI"?
It is the trap almost everyone falls into at some point.
Your company has not sorted out an AI plan yet.
You have a perfectly good Pro account of your own.
So you use it.
Your company's data is now sitting under consumer rules instead of business ones.
Nothing dramatic happens that afternoon.
But the protections your employer assumes are in place simply are not.
If it is work, use a work plan.
What should I do about it today?
Open your account and check which plan your name is actually on.
If you are doing office work on a personal account, raise it with whoever handles your tools.
Asking for a work plan is a much smaller conversation than explaining a leak.
And if you are staying personal, know that the training toggle is yours to set.
Things to Remember
- Check which plan you are on before you check any setting.
- On Free, Pro and Max, training happens only if you opt in.
- On Team, Enterprise and API, training is off by default and settled contractually.
- Never run company data through a personal account.
- Ask your employer for a work plan instead of quietly using your own.