Be careful what you ask for
Bing Chat is a new feature that allows users to interact with Bing’s artificial intelligence (AI) in a conversational way. It is currently in beta to a select group of users while Microsoft irons out the initial kinks with the software and prepares it for prime time. Users on the Bing Chat beta can ask it various questions, get information, and even have some fun with the AI’s personality and quirkiness (lots of quirkiness). However, one thing of note is Bing Chat cannot delete your chat history. Out of curiosity I asked Bing about my chat history and received the following response:
As you can see, Bing Chat mentioned it does not allow you to delete your chat history, which means you cannot control your chat history data. You may not want to keep your chat history for multiple reasons, such as privacy, security, or simply personal preference.
Again, out of interest I asked Bing Chat to delete my chat history and received the response below:
The Microsoft privacy policy does state that Microsoft does not use your chat history for any other purposes than to provide you with a better Bing chat experience. However, there is still a possibility that your chat history may be accessed by others, such as Microsoft employees, hackers, or law enforcement. This may reveal your personal information, preferences, behaviour, or opinions, which may be sensitive, confidential, or controversial.
So, in theory, Microsoft could retain and review everything you ask Bing Chat. This does beg the question, why hasn’t Microsoft incorporated chat history deletion into Bing Chat? It seems like a basic function, and one that many users would want. After all, ChatGPT allows users to delete their chat history.
As a footnote, it’s worth mentioning that Bing Chat history and Bing Search history are two distinct areas of functionality. It is simple enough to delete your Bing Search history by going to your Microsoft Account Profile History page here and selecting the “Clear All” button on the right side of the page.