We are a small EU company and, for internal code, no storage outside Europe is a hard requirement for us. I suspect we are not the only ones in that position.
Right now, the path for requesting Zero Data Retention feels far too unclear. OpenAI should make it much more explicit whether this is an eligible use case, and if not, say so clearly.
In my case, I had to fill out the contact form four times. Three times, the Submit button was simply grayed out and I could not proceed. On the fourth attempt, I finally reached the confirmation screen saying the request would be processed, but I received no confirmation email and no case number.
That makes the whole process feel opaque and unreliable, especially for companies that need a clear answer before adopting these tools for internal repositories and code.
It would be very helpful if OpenAI made the following clearer:
whether small companies can qualify for Zero Data Retention at all
whether EU-only data handling requirements are a supported use case
what the correct request path is
whether a request was actually received, for example via confirmation email or case ID
If the answer is no, that is fine – but the process should make that clear without requiring repeated trial and error.
This is rather funny — I wonder how many EU citizens are using this for their own personal data?
While companies are trying to navigate ZDR, EU-only storage, and compliance, individuals are likely pasting the same kind of data in themselves without a second thought.
It feels a bit like everyone is being told they have a problem — and they’re buying it hook, line and sinker.
Meanwhile, individuals behave one way, and systems are built for another.
There are real issues, but the gap between perceived risk and actual behaviour is hard to ignore.
For my part I don’t really care if the “evil empire” has all my data… they can choke on it…
The eyes in the sky don’t discriminate from any country including China and Russia…
If they wanted to know they’d know…. World leaders can’t escape them…
I do understand there are problems, but I also understand there are problems…
The world is simply better if we work the problems out.
