Your Data, Your Privacy: Staying Safe with AI Apps

What AI Apps Actually Know About You

When you use an AI app — a chatbot, an image generator, a voice assistant — you are not just getting a service. You are also providing data. The question is: what data, stored how, and used for what?

Most major AI tools collect at minimum:

• Your full conversation history — what you ask and what the AI responds
• Your device type, operating system, and browser
• Your IP address, which can reveal your approximate location
• How you interact with the app — what you click, how long you stay, what you return to

Some apps collect significantly more, especially those connected to social media accounts or that use your camera or microphone. This data is used for product improvement, to train future versions of the AI model, and sometimes for advertising. The important thing to know: anything you type into an AI chatbot may be stored and potentially reviewed by the company. That includes things you meant to keep private.

What Changed with COPPA in 2026

COPPA — the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act — is the US law governing how apps and websites handle data from children under 13. April 22, 2026 was the enforcement date for the biggest update to COPPA in 12 years.

The key changes relevant to AI:

• Apps are now explicitly prohibited from using data collected from children to train AI models without separate parental consent for each use. The FTC has ruled this is never considered a normal part of providing a service.
• Voice data processed by any voice assistant — including Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant — is now explicitly classified as biometric data requiring consent.
• The FTC is actively enforcing these rules in 2026, with a focus on companies that embedded advertising trackers or used data from children without consent.

A proposed law called the SAFE BOTs Act would go further: it would require AI chatbots used by minors to clearly disclose they are AI (not human), provide crisis resources when self-harm topics come up, and include time-limit reminders after extended sessions. It has not passed yet, but it shows where regulation is heading.

What does this mean for you? If you are under 13, most major AI tools — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude — technically require parental consent, and none currently claim full COPPA compliance for direct child use. If you are 13 to 17, most platforms treat you as a general user, but you are still subject to their data practices.

What You Should Never Share with an AI

Some information should not go into any AI chatbot, regardless of what app it is:

• Your full name combined with your address, school, or daily schedule. AI companies may store your conversations, and combining these details creates a real privacy risk.
• Passwords or account credentials. Never, under any circumstances.
• Sensitive personal information — financial details, medical information, family situations involving other people who did not consent to being discussed.
• Anything you would not want your school, parents, or future employer to read. Conversations may be retained, reviewed, or — in some cases — subpoenaed.
• Photos of yourself or others that you would not want used to train AI models or stored indefinitely by a company.

Choosing AI Tools More Wisely

Not all AI apps handle your data the same way. A few things to check before signing up for any AI tool:

• Does it have a clear privacy policy? Look for it. A missing or vague privacy policy is a red flag.
• Can you opt out of your data being used for training? ChatGPT and Claude both offer this option in their settings. Use it.
• Does it ask for permissions it does not need? An AI writing app does not need access to your camera or contacts.
• Is it a small or unknown app? Stick to established tools from companies you can research. Unknown AI apps have sometimes been fronts for data harvesting.

Privacy is not about having something to hide. It is about having control over your own information in a world where data about you has real commercial value — and where losing control of it can have real consequences.