Private AI for job seekers: where your resume, salary numbers, and interview video end up

The Morse teamPublished October 26, 202610 min read

As of October 2026, private AI for job seekers means managing two sets of copies: the resume, salary numbers, and references you paste into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, which you mostly control, and the interview videos, profiles, and scores that employers' AI hiring tools keep, which you mostly don't. ChatGPT trains on Free, Plus, and Pro chats unless you turn that off, and two hiring tool vendors, HireVue and Eightfold, both tell candidates to take deletion requests to the employer instead of to them.

We read OpenAI's, Anthropic's, and Google's help pages, LinkedIn's generative AI FAQ, HireVue's and Eightfold's privacy notices and candidate pages, Illinois' and New York City's AI hiring laws, California's new hiring rules, and a state audit of New York City's enforcement on October 26, 2026. OpenAI's help center blocked us, so for OpenAI we read archive copies of its own pages from September and October 2026, dated where they're cited. This is privacy guidance for a job search, not career advice.

Is it safe to put your resume in ChatGPT?

Yes, with your contact details stripped out and training turned off, but a resume uploaded as a file can stay in your account after you delete the chat. OpenAI's page on model training says that for Free, Plus, and Pro, "we may use your content to train our models," and that to opt out you turn off Improve the model for everyone under Settings, then Data controls. Rating a reply with a thumbs up or down still sends "the entire conversation associated with that feedback" to training, even after you opt out (OpenAI, read in an October 19, 2026 archive copy).

Uploaded files follow their own rule. OpenAI's retention page says uploaded files are saved to your Library where it's available, and "deleting a chat does not delete files saved to Library" (OpenAI, read in a September 15, 2026 archive copy). So deleting the chat where you polished your resume can leave the PDF, with your phone number and address on it, in Library until you delete it there too. Deleted chats leave OpenAI's systems within 30 days, unless OpenAI must keep them longer for security or legal reasons, and a Temporary Chat is deleted within 30 days on its own. We cover the training switch in more depth in does ChatGPT train on your data, and the deletion steps in how to delete your ChatGPT history.

The cheapest fix works in any chat app. Paste the text instead of uploading the file, and replace your name, phone, email, street address, and references with placeholders like "[PHONE]". The model doesn't need them to tighten a bullet point.

What do Claude and Gemini keep from a job search chat?

Both keep less if you change one setting, and both publish exactly how long they keep what's left, which is to their credit.

• Claude: with Help Improve our AI models on (under Settings, then Privacy), Anthropic says it may keep your chats "in a de-identified format for up to 5 years" in its training pipelines. Deleted chats leave its back-end storage within 30 days, and chats flagged for a usage policy violation are kept for up to 2 years (Anthropic, page dated July 1, 2026; setting steps, dated August 3, 2026). Our Claude privacy guide covers the rest.
• Gemini: Google says "a subset of chats are reviewed by human reviewers," that reviewed chats "are retained for up to three years," and "Please don't enter confidential information that you wouldn't want a reviewer to see." Activity auto-deletes after 18 months by default, and with Keep Activity off, chats stay with your account for 72 hours (Google, updated October 23, 2026). Our Gemini privacy guide has the settings.

Apply Google's warning to salary history and offer letters too, since a reviewer would see the numbers along with the rest of the chat.

Who can delete your job search data?

It depends on who holds the copy. We put the AI chat tools a job seeker uses next to the AI hiring tools an employer uses, from each company's own page, read October 26, 2026 (OpenAI from the archive copies above).

In the chat tools, the setting and the delete button are yours, while the hiring tools answer to the employer. The version of HireVue's privacy notice we read, effective September 16, 2025, says it doesn't cover "Customer Candidate Data," which is "governed by the contractual data processing terms we have agreed with those customers," and tells applicants to "contact the relevant customer to whom you have applied directly" (HireVue). Eightfold's notice, last updated May 2026, says "We have no direct relationship with the individuals whose Personal Data we process on behalf of Customers" and sends candidates to the employer too (Eightfold).

Can employers see if you used ChatGPT?

Not through your personal chat history, if you use your own device. The employer admin tools we've read reach work accounts, and a work laptop can log some of what you type into a personal one, so if you job hunt on your current employer's laptop, read our guide to what your employer can see on a work laptop first.

During an AI interview, the platform can see more. HireVue's page on cheating and fraud, read October 26, 2026, lists "loss of focus," "location signals," "browser monitoring," "disabling paste," and ID verification among its checks, with "candidate snapshots and automated flags for browser-focus loss" so a reviewer can follow up (HireVue). Moving to another tab mid-answer is a loss of browser focus, which it flags. On drafting help, the same page says, "Using AI to improve wording, organize experience, or prepare for an application does not automatically make an application fraudulent."

Can you make an employer delete your AI interview video?

In Illinois, yes, if you ask. Elsewhere it depends on the employer, and in California the rules point the other way. This isn't legal advice; for a dispute, ask an employment lawyer in your state.

• Illinois: the Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act says that "upon request from the applicant," an employer has 30 days to delete your interviews and tell anyone it shared them with to delete theirs, "including all electronically generated backup copies." Before the interview, the employer must tell you AI may be used, explain "how the artificial intelligence works," and get your consent, and it may share the video only with people whose "expertise or technology" it needs to evaluate you (820 ILCS 42). Since January 1, 2026, the state's Human Rights Act also bars AI that discriminates, or using zip codes "as a proxy for protected classes," and requires employers to notify employees when they use AI for those decisions (Public Act 103-0804).
• California: rules in effect since October 1, 2025 require employers to keep employment records, "including automated-decision data, for a minimum of four years," and say AI assessments that draw out information about a disability "may constitute an unlawful medical inquiry" (California Civil Rights Department).
• Federally: as of October 26, 2026, the EEOC's 2022 and 2023 technical assistance pages on AI in hiring return "The requested page could not be found." Its 2021 announcement of an initiative on AI and algorithmic fairness is still up.

HireVue's FAQ tells you to "send your deletion request to the company you're applying to," by emailing your recruiter or following the instructions on the company's application page (HireVue). In Illinois, the Act's 30 days run from when the employer receives that request.

Can you find out what an AI hiring tool collected about you?

In New York City, you can ask in writing. Local Law 144 bars employers from using an automated employment decision tool unless it had a bias audit within a year and candidates got notice, which its FAQ says must come 10 business days before the tool is used (NYC DCWP). The law itself goes further than the FAQ: if the employer hasn't posted them, "information about the type of data collected," its source, and "the employer or employment agency's data retention policy" must be given on a candidate's written request, "within 30 days" (Local Law 144). The notice rules cover candidates who live in the city.

Few people have used it. New York State's Comptroller audited enforcement from July 2023 through June 2025 and found the city received "only two AEDT complaints." The city's own review of 32 companies "identified just a single issue of non-compliance," while the auditors, reviewing the same companies, found "at least 17 instances of potential non-compliance" (Office of the New York State Comptroller, December 2, 2025).

Two job seekers sued Eightfold in California's Contra Costa County Superior Court on January 20, 2026, alleging that its tools score applicants "from 0 to 5" on their "likelihood of success" using data from outside the application, and that applicants have "no meaningful opportunity to review or dispute" the result (complaint). Those are the plaintiffs' allegations. Eightfold's own notice names the third-party sources quoted in the table above.

How Morse keeps your job search drafts off company servers

Every copy above sits on a server someone else runs. Once you apply, the hiring tool's copy is the employer's to keep or delete, and the requests above are the way to reach it. The drafting copies go wherever you choose to write. Morse keeps your chat history only in your browser, encrypted, and our servers don't keep your messages or log what you write. A file you attach is sent with the message and never stored by Morse, so no copy of your resume waits on our servers after you delete the chat.

• Private, for drafting the resume and cover letter. It's the mode a new chat starts in, with open-weight models like DeepSeek, Kimi, and GLM. 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.
• Anonymous, to have GPT, Claude, or Gemini critique your resume without the provider knowing it's you. Our proxy removes your account, email, and IP address and sends the message under Morse's own account. The provider sees the text and may keep it for a limited time to check for abuse, under its own policy, so the placeholders for your phone and address still belong in the draft.
• E2EE, for salary numbers, offer comparisons, and anything about your current employer. Your browser checks the secure enclave's hardware attestation, then encrypts the message so only that enclave can read it, and Morse's servers relay text they can't read. The enclaves are run by third-party providers, not by Morse, and the guarantee depends on the enclave hardware and attestation working as designed. E2EE chats come with Pro, $19 a month.

In every mode, Morse doesn't train AI on your chats, sell your data, or show ads, so there's no switch to hunt for before you paste a salary history. Clearing your browser or losing the device deletes your chats for good, and Morse can't recover them, so save the final resume somewhere you keep files.

Your job search, item by item:

• Resume: paste text, not the file, with placeholders for contact details. In ChatGPT, turn off "Improve the model for everyone" and check Library after deleting the chat. In Morse, there's no training to turn off and no file left on our servers.
• Salary history and offers: keep them out of any chat with human review or training on. In Morse, use an E2EE chat.
• References: leave them out of every AI chat.
• AI video interview: read the notice before you consent, and send a deletion request to the employer, not the vendor, once the process ends.
• Hiring tool profiles and scores: in New York City, ask in writing what data the tool collected and how long it's kept.

Start free with no card needed and draft your next cover letter there, or try a chat from the Morse home page without an account.