You tell your AI assistant things you wouldn't tell your best friend: your finances, your health worries, your secret plans. But do you know what happens to that data?
What the big players do
Let's be clear: most free AI services use your conversations to improve their models. It's written in their terms of use, in the small print.
In practice, that means your conversation about your medical symptoms or your financial situation can be read by moderation teams, used for training, or stored indefinitely on servers in the United States.
The right questions to ask
Before trusting an AI service with your data, ask these four questions:
1. Where is my data stored? Location matters. Data protection laws vary dramatically between countries. Switzerland and the EU offer the strongest protections.
2. Are my conversations used to train the model? If so, your data feeds a system used by millions of other people. Even "anonymised", it can contain identifying information.
3. Who can access my conversations? The service's employees? Subcontractors? The authorities of another country?
4. What happens if I delete my account? Is your data really erased, or just marked as "deleted" while it stays on the servers?
The Swiss approach
In Switzerland, the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) sets high standards. Swiss companies must:
- Be clear about how data is used
- Obtain explicit consent
- Allow full export and deletion of data
- Host data in line with Swiss standards
That's why we chose to base Zelly in Switzerland. Not out of patriotism, but because it's the best guarantee for our users.
What Zelly does in practice
- Swiss hosting — your data never leaves Switzerland
- Zero training — your conversations are never used to improve a model
- Full isolation — each assistant is a separate environment
- Export anytime — you can retrieve all your data in one click
- Real deletion — when you delete, it's deleted. Full stop.
The right reflex
Next time you hesitate to share something personal with an AI, ask yourself: "Would I put this in an unencrypted email?" If the answer is no, check how the service handles your data first.
Your privacy is worth something. Don't give it away for a free service.