What Does ChatGPT Know About Me and My Business?
ChatGPT keeps more about your business than most owners realize: memories, past chats, files, connected apps and its own assumptions. Four prompts to see what it knows, and the settings to clean it up.
The short answer
ChatGPT knows what you've told it about your business, plus what it pulls from saved memories, past chats, custom instructions, uploaded files and connected apps like Gmail. It also draws its own conclusions from all of that. The quickest way to find out what it knows is to ask it, and then clean up what's wrong in your settings.
At a glance
- Time
- About 20 minutes
- Tools
- ChatGPT
- You need
- Your ChatGPT settings
- Check
- Once in a while
If you use ChatGPT for your business, it already knows a lot more about you than you might realize.
Some of it you told it directly. Your business name, your customers, how you like things written.
Some of it came from past chats, files or other things you've shared. And some of it is conclusions it has drawn from all of that.
That matters, because when you ask ChatGPT to write a post, an email or any of your marketing, it uses that picture to shape the answer. If the picture is old, incomplete or wrong, the answer will be off too.
So I asked mine what it knows about my business, my clients and the conclusions it had drawn. Then I went through where that information can come from, and where to clean it up.
Watch the video above to see me go through it.
Key takeaways
- 01
There isn't one big file with everything ChatGPT knows about you. It can draw on saved memories, past chats, custom instructions, uploaded files and connected apps, depending on your settings.
- 02
ChatGPT makes assumptions you never stated. Maybe you've never said you're a one-person business, but after dozens of conversations that's the picture it has built.
- 03
You can ask ChatGPT directly what it knows. Four prompts will show you what it knows about your business, your clients, the assumptions it's making and what a competitor could learn.
- 04
Deleting a memory doesn't delete the chat it came from. Deleting a chat doesn't necessarily remove a memory created from it either, so check both places.
- 05
Turning everything off has a cost. If ChatGPT doesn't remember your business, it's harder to get it to create content or plan with you, so you have to decide where your balance is.
The prompt that tends to surprise people is the one about clients.
I asked ChatGPT what information about real clients or customers I've shared with it, including names, email addresses and company names it can currently access.
If you use ChatGPT every day for your business, it's worth knowing what's sitting in there.
And if I'm dealing with something sensitive and don't want my existing personal context involved, I'd use a temporary chat that isn't personalized.
Prefer to watch
7:46How to check it and clean it up
Ask ChatGPT what it knows
Start a chat and paste in the four prompts from the examples below, one at a time.
They cover what it knows about your business, what it knows about your clients, the assumptions it's making and what a competitor could learn from it all.
Check the answers against reality
Go through what comes back and ask yourself:
- Is it right? - Is anything outdated? - Is anything completely wrong? - Is there anything in there you didn't realize you'd shared?
Anything that fails one of those is worth cleaning up, because it's shaping every answer you get.
Go through your saved memories
Go to `Settings > Personalization > Memory`.
Memory is what ChatGPT has kept because it thinks it could be useful later: your business name, where you're located, people you mention a lot, how you like your answers written.
Look through what's there and remove anything you don't want ChatGPT using.
Decide about past chats
In the same place, there's an option for referencing past chats. You can turn it off.
There's a balance here. If you turn it off, ChatGPT won't really remember things about you, and it gets harder to create content or plan with it when it doesn't know your business. On the other hand, you might have shared too much.
That's your call to make.
Delete or check your chats
To delete a chat, click the three dots beside it and choose Delete.
Then check `Settings > Data controls > Archived chats`. Archiving a conversation only hides it from your main list. It does not delete it.
Remember that memories and chats are separate. If there's something you really want gone, check both places.
Check your library for files
If you've uploaded documents, look in your library.
Some files can stay there separately from the chat you first uploaded them in. If you're cleaning up sensitive business information, don't forget those.
Disconnect apps you don't use
Go to `Settings > Apps`.
If you've connected Google Drive, Gmail or another service and you're not using it, disconnect it. When it's connected, ChatGPT may use information from it when it thinks it's relevant.
Turn off training, and use temporary chat for sensitive work
Go to `Settings > Data controls` and look for Improve the model for everyone. If you don't want your new conversations used to improve OpenAI's models, turn it off.
One thing to know: if you give a thumbs up or thumbs down on a response, that feedback may still be used.
For anything sensitive, use a temporary chat. It doesn't go into your chat history and doesn't create memories. You can now choose a personalized temporary chat, which can still use what ChatGPT knows about you, or one that isn't personalized, which doesn't.
The prompts I used
What it knows about your business
> What do you currently know about my business that could affect how you answer my questions? Put it in a list.
This is the starting point. It shows you the picture ChatGPT is working from every time you ask it for marketing.
What it knows about your clients
> What information about real clients or customers have I shared with you? Include names, email addresses, company names, or other identifying information you can currently access.
As I said in the video: "That might surprise you."
The assumptions it's making
> Based on the information available to you about my business, what assumptions are you making that I have not explicitly stated? For each one, tell me what information led you to that conclusion.
This is the one that shows you how the picture gets built from your conversations, including the things you never actually said.
What a competitor could learn
> If a competitor could see all the information you currently have about my business, what could they learn about how I operate, who I serve, and how I market myself?
It's a useful way to look at it from the outside. If the answer makes you uncomfortable, that tells you what to clean up first.
The sources under a response
On some personalized answers, you can see sources underneath the response. Open that, and ChatGPT shows you some of the personal context it used: a saved memory, a past chat, your custom instructions, a file or something from a connected app.
It doesn't appear on every answer. When it does, it's a really useful way to see what's actually influencing the response.
Sources
Questions people actually ask
What does ChatGPT know about me?+
Whatever you've told it, plus what it can pull from saved memories, past chats, custom instructions, uploaded files and connected apps, depending on your settings. It also makes assumptions from all of that. Ask it directly to find out.
How do I see what ChatGPT remembers about me?+
Go to `Settings > Personalization > Memory` to see a summary of saved memories. For the fuller picture, ask it what it currently knows about your business and put it in a list.
Does deleting a chat delete the memory too?+
Not necessarily. Deleting a memory doesn't always delete the chat it came from, and deleting a chat doesn't always remove a separate memory created from it. Check both.
Does archiving a ChatGPT chat delete it?+
No. Archiving only hides the conversation from your main list. To remove it, click the three dots beside the chat and choose Delete.
How long does it take for deleted chats to be removed?+
Deleted chats can take up to 30 days to be fully removed from OpenAI's systems, subject to things like legal or security requirements.
Does temporary chat delete everything right away?+
No. A temporary chat isn't added to your history and doesn't create memories, but it isn't instantly deleted from every system when you close it. There may still be limited retention.
Should I turn off ChatGPT memory for my business?+
It's a balance. Without memory, ChatGPT won't know your business and it's harder to get useful content from it. With it on, check now and then that what it's keeping is accurate and that you haven't shared too much.
What if the settings have moved?+
Menus move around. If a setting has a different name by the time you read this, look in Personalization, Memory, Data controls, your library and Apps. Those are the main places to check.
About the author
Hey, I'm Traci
Digital Marketing Strategist
With over 25 years in this industry I help small business owners and creators turn their online presence into profit.
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