Is Poe private? What Quora, model makers, and bot creators get

The Morse teamPublished November 1, 20269 min read

Poe, Quora's multi-model AI app, is private from other users but not from the companies behind it: as of October 2026, Quora keeps your Poe chats on its servers, sends their contents to the model provider behind each bot, and lets third-party "half shield" bots store your chats and train on them. Official bots built on OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta models don't train on your chats, Poe says, and model providers don't get your username or email.

We read Poe's privacy policy and Privacy Center (both last updated April 30, 2026), its terms of service (March 19, 2026), its help center FAQ (updated October 12, 2026), its server bot protocol, and the Quora privacy policy it incorporates, all on October 24, 2026. Each fact below links to the Quora or Poe page it came from. Poe deserves credit for its privacy shield icon, which tells you on every bot, before you type, whether that bot may train on what you send.

Poe's privacy settings at a glance

Who can see your Poe chats?

Two kinds of companies can, and other users can't unless you share. Poe's Privacy Center says your chats with bots "are only visible to you and the model provider," unless you share them, join a group chat, use Memory, or talk to a half-shield bot, "in which case the developers who created those bots or apps may be able to see them" (Poe).

Quora sees them too, since it runs the service. Poe's terms give Quora "a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, and perpetual license" to use your content for purposes that include "understanding your use of Poe to generally improve the Poe services" (Poe).

The privacy shield tells you which kind of bot you're in. A fully shaded shield means data goes to AI model providers "e.g. OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, FireworksAI" or to services in Poe's sandbox, and "will not be used by AI model providers for training purposes" (Poe). A half-shaded shield means data "may be shared with AI model providers, the developer who created the bot or app, and/or any external resources accessed by the bot," and "may be used for training purposes." A bot can move from full shield to half shield "if you grant it new permissions."

Does Poe share your data with OpenAI?

Yes, when you use an OpenAI bot, and the same goes for Anthropic, Google, and Meta. The Privacy Center says Poe shares "the contents of your chats with AI model providers that power the bots and apps on Poe (including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta)" (Poe). The privacy policy adds "photos or documents you upload" to what those providers may receive (Poe).

Poe strips your account details first. Its policy says your "username and email" are not shared with model providers or developers, except in group chats, where they "may receive limited personally identifiable information to help them distinguish between users" (Poe). Your rough location can still reach a bot. Poe collects your IP address and says "some bots may receive your rough IP address to respond to location-specific questions."

Poe's two privacy pages describe provider use differently. The Privacy Center says official bots "cannot access your chats for anything other than to produce the requested LLM response" (Poe). The privacy policy says providers and developers may receive your chats "to provide and generally improve their services" (Poe). Neither page says which wins, and only the policy carries the legal weight.

What does a third-party Poe bot receive?

Your whole conversation, not only your latest message. Poe's protocol for server bots, the bots developers run on their own servers, lists what Poe sends with each message (Poe). We read it on October 24, 2026:

The user ID is not your email, but it marks your requests as coming from the same user. Poe's privacy policy says these developers "may view and store your chats on their servers to train their models" (Poe), and Poe's pages don't say how long a developer may keep them.

Does Poe train on your chats?

For official bots, no, according to Poe. The Privacy Center answers "In most cases, no. Only third-party developer bots and apps are permitted to use your chats to train their models" (Poe). Official Poe bots, and prompt bots that users build on OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or Meta models, "do not train on your chats."

We found no setting on Poe's pages that stops a half-shield bot from training. The control Poe describes is choosing which bot you talk to. We compared training defaults across more apps in which AI companies train on your data.

How long does Poe keep your chats?

Poe doesn't publish a period. Its privacy policy is silent on retention and points you to Quora's policy, which says Quora keeps personal information "for as long as we have a relationship with you," and after that long enough to keep business records, meet legal retention rules, and "defend or bring any existing or potential legal claims" (Quora). That Quora policy has been in effect since August 25, 2023.

Deleting works in a few ways, each with its own limit:

• Chats. Open Settings and choose "Delete all chats," or right-click a message on the web and choose "Delete" (Poe). The Privacy Center says deleted chats are removed "from Poe's systems," but "data you delete from a chat may persist in the background summaries" that Memory builds (Poe).
• Memory. It's off by default; once on, Poe updates it once a day from new messages, and you can view or permanently delete it in Settings, then Memory (Poe).
• Temporary chats. Messages are "permanently deleted within 24 hours of creation," files you upload are kept "up to 15 days for safety review," and Poe "may keep content longer to meet our legal and safety obligations." Temporary chats work only with official bots.
• Your account. It's deactivated at once and deleted after 14 days unless you log back in. Poe's terms add that "any Data collected prior to termination may continue to be used in accordance with these Terms" (Poe).

None of this reaches copies a provider or developer already holds. Poe says each provider "sets their own retention schedule" and tells you to contact them directly (Poe).

Does deleting Poe delete your Quora account?

Yes, if the two are linked. Poe's help center says "if you have a Quora account linked to your Poe account, deleting your Poe account will also delete your Quora account" (Poe). The privacy policy says an existing Quora user's "name, Quora-associated email address, profile photo, and Quora user ID will be used to link your Quora account to your Poe account" (Poe). If you've written on Quora for years, save what you want before you delete Poe.

Who can see a Poe chat you share?

Anyone with the link, for group chats. Poe's FAQ warns that "anyone with the link can join and see the entire conversation," that up to 200 people can join a chat, and that people you add to an existing chat "can see the entire conversation history" (Poe). Admins can reset a link, which invalidates the old one.

The Share button copies only the messages you pick into a new share object. Choosing "Share on Poe" turns them into a post other Poe users can see, which you can delete from your profile. If you like someone's post, other users can see that you liked it.

Does Poe use your data for ads?

For its own advertising, yes. Poe's privacy policy says "We may share your hashed email with our ad platform partners for our advertising activities, such as for programmatic ads and paid acquisition campaigns," and that it will get consent "where necessary" (Poe). When you interact with Poe ads, it collects your IP address, advertising ID, and ad interaction information. Quora's policy also lists "interest-based, retargeted, contextual, and behavioral advertising" on the Quora Platform among its uses of your data (Quora), and Poe's terms make Poe part of that platform (Poe).

Can Poe hand your chats to the police?

Yes. Quora's privacy policy says it may disclose information "where we are required to do so by law" and to "comply with legal process (e.g., subpoenas or warrants)" (Quora). Poe's terms say Quora may "use or disclose Your Content to comply with applicable laws" (Poe). We cover how stored chats end up in court in can AI chats be subpoenaed. This isn't legal advice.

How Morse keeps multi-model chats private

Every Poe chat sits on Quora's servers under an account that may be tied to your Quora identity, and then goes to whichever provider or developer the shield icon names. You have to read an icon on each bot to know who can train on what you type, and the record stays for as long as Quora has "a relationship with you."

Morse also puts many models in one account, over 30, open and closed, and it's built so your history never sits on a company's server. Your chat history is stored in your browser, encrypted, and Morse's servers don't keep messages or log what you write. Morse doesn't train AI on your content, sell your data, or show ads, so there's no shield to check and no hashed email going to ad partners (privacy policy). There's no Quora-style account to entangle: sign-in is a code sent to your email, or Google.

Pick a privacy mode for each chat:

• Anonymous, for GPT, Claude, and Gemini without your account or IP attached. Poe keeps your username and email from providers, and our proxy goes further: it strips your account, email, and IP address and sends the message under Morse's own account. The provider sees the message without knowing it's you, and may keep it for a limited time to check for abuse, under its own policy.
• Private, for open-weight models and Grok with nothing kept. Private is the default mode. Morse has zero data retention agreements with its inference, search, and other providers, so they keep nothing. Where a provider confirms zero retention on each reply, Morse checks it and refuses a reply that doesn't.
• E2EE, for anything no developer or provider should read. Your browser checks the secure enclave's hardware attestation, then encrypts the message so only that enclave can open it, and Morse's servers relay ciphertext they can't read. It relies on the enclave hardware and attestation working as designed, and runs open-weight models with no web search or image generation.

Deleting is final on Morse. Clearing your browser, losing the device, or deleting your account deletes your chats, with no 14-day window on a server, and Morse can't recover them, so save anything you need first. Because we don't store chats, we usually have very little to give authorities. How Morse compares with Poe and other model hubs on price and limits is in T3 Chat alternatives.

Which Poe settings to change, by worry

• Bot creators training on your chats: on Poe, check the shield icon and stay on fully shaded bots. Morse doesn't train AI on your content, and in Private mode its providers keep nothing.
• Your Quora identity: on Poe, don't link a Quora account you want to keep separate, and know that deleting one can delete both. On Morse, there's nothing to link.
• Old chats lingering: on Poe, use temporary chats with official bots and clear Memory along with your chats. On Morse, history lives only in your browser.
• Ads: on Poe, use Quora's "Your Privacy Choices" link to opt out of targeted advertising where your law allows. Morse shows no ads.

Send a first message from the Morse home page without an account, or start free; E2EE chats come with Pro, at $19 a month.