OpenAI has announced the introduction of data residency in Europe for ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu, and the API Platform. This initiative helps businesses operating in Europe comply with local data protection regulations.
For the API Platform, users can now choose to process data in Europe when creating new projects. Requests made through these projects will be handled within the region with zero data retention, ensuring that model interactions are not stored. However, existing projects cannot be retroactively updated to enable European data residency.
For ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu, new workspaces can be configured to store user data in Europe, including conversation history, custom GPTs, user prompts, uploaded files, and content across text, vision, and image formats.
OpenAI emphasizes that customer data is not used for model training by default and employs advanced encryption methods (AES-256 and TLS 1.2+) to protect information. The company complies with GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy laws and follows industry security standards like CSA STAR and SOC 2 Type 2.
This initiative enhances data control and security for European organizations, benefiting major clients such as Klarna, Spotify, Oxford University, and Santander.