Understanding OpenAI’s Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

Mark Craddock
Prompt Engineering
Published in
3 min readApr 15, 2023

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Summarising OpenAI’s Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

The following was created using ChatGPT to summarise the terms of service and privacy policy for OpenAI on the 15th April 2023.

Terms & Conditions

Restrictions

One of the main restrictions outlined in the Terms of Service is that users cannot use the services in a way that infringes on any person’s rights.

This includes not using the services to develop models that compete with OpenAI.

Additionally, users are not allowed to use any automated or programmatic method to extract data or output from the services, unless they are permitted through the API.

These restrictions are in place to ensure that OpenAI’s services are used in a responsible and ethical manner.

Content

The Terms of Service also outline how OpenAI handles content provided by users. Users may provide input to the services, which generates output based on that input.

The input and output together are considered content, and as between the parties, the user owns all input.

OpenAI assigns to the user all its right, title, and interest in and to the output, which means that users can use the content for any purpose, including commercial purposes.

However, users are responsible for ensuring that the content does not violate any applicable law or the Terms of Service.

Generated Content

Due to the nature of machine learning, the output generated by OpenAI’s services may not be unique across users. In some cases, the same or similar output may be generated for different users. Responses that are requested by and generated for other users are not considered the user’s content.

OpenAI states that they do not use content provided by users to develop or improve their services.

However, they may use content from services other than their API to help improve their services. Users can opt-out of allowing their content to be used in this manner.

Confidentiality, Security and Data Protection

The Terms of Service also cover issues related to confidentiality, security, and data protection. Users may be given access to confidential information of OpenAI, its affiliates, and other third parties, and must use that information only as needed to use the services.

Users must also implement reasonable and appropriate measures to help secure their access to and use of the services.

If users use the services to process personal data, they must provide legally adequate privacy notices and obtain necessary consents for the processing of such data. Users must also represent that they are processing such data in accordance with applicable law.

Class Actions

Lastly, the Terms of Service state that disputes must be brought on an individual basis only and may not be brought as a class or representative proceeding. This means that class arbitrations, class actions, private attorney general actions, and consolidation with other arbitrations are not allowed.

Privacy Policy

When you use the non-API consumer services ChatGPT or DALL-E, we may use the data you provide us to improve our models.

You can request to opt-out of having your data used to improve our non-API services by filling out this form with your organization ID and email address associated with the owner of the account.

OpenAI is committed to keeping personal information secure and private.

They collect personal information when you create an account or interact with their services, including account information, user content, communication information, and technical information.

They use personal information for purposes such as administering their services, communicating with users, preventing fraud, and complying with legal obligations.

OpenAI may disclose personal information to third parties in certain circumstances.

Users may have certain rights regarding their personal information depending on their location.

OpenAI implements measures to protect personal information, retains it only as long as necessary, and may anonymize or de-identify it for research purposes.

Users understand and acknowledge that their personal information may be transferred to the United States.

Users have choices about providing personal information and using certain features of OpenAI’s services.

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Mark Craddock
Prompt Engineering

Techie. Built VH1, G-Cloud, Unified Patent Court, UN Global Platform. Saved UK Economy £12Bn. Now building AI stuff #datascout #promptengineer #MLOps #DataOps