Does a VPN protect your privacy when using ChatGPT or Claude? What network encryption can and can’t hide from AI (www.techradar.com)

A recent article sheds light on the limitations of using VPNs for privacy when interacting with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude. While VPNs effectively mask your IP address and encrypt your internet traffic from your ISP, they do not prevent AI companies from accessing and storing the content you share. Both OpenAI and Anthropic can see your messages, device information, and location once your data reaches their servers, as it must be decrypted for processing. This means that despite VPN protection, user prompts remain fully accessible to the AI platforms. For those concerned about privacy, the article emphasizes the importance of adjusting settings to limit data collection. Users can opt-out of data usage for training models in both ChatGPT and Claude, though conversations may still be stored for legal reasons. For heightened privacy, alternatives such as Lumo by Proton AG offer zero-access encryption, ensuring only users can decrypt their data, while running open-source models offline can guarantee that no data leaves a local machine. This discussion underscores the need for greater awareness of digital privacy practices in an era where AI companies collect extensive user information.