Forget ChatGPT and Gemini — this lesser-known chatbot just ranked No. 1 for privacy

Tom's Guide

a day ago

If you use AI every single day, you are likely giving up a lot of personal data, more than you might realize.
It has not always been entirely clear which of the AI chatbots are best when it comes to your privacy. While there are some options that have never exactly pretended to be too worried about privacy (looking at you Deepseek), others sit in somewhat murky waters.
Well, now we have a better understanding thanks to a new report, which ranks AI and large language models based on their data privacy. This includes 9 of the biggest AI systems, including all of the names you'll know well, and some other lesser-known ones, too.
Not only does the report provide a No. 1 option for privacy (a surprising one at that), but it also ranks them based on a number of more specific privacy categories.
So which is the best AI chatbot for your privacy? It's Le Chat. Not heard of it? You're not alone. While Mistral has built up a cult following, it hasn't had the same commercial success as the likes of OpenAI or Deepseek.
The French AI company was founded in 2023 and has quickly made a mark. It is funded by Microsoft and was founded by three French AI researchers, including a former employee of Google DeepMind.
According to the research, Le Chat is limited in its data collections and, unlike most of its competitors, is incredibly limited in who it will share data with.
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While Le Chat doesn't have the same financial backing or amount of testing data as the likes of OpenAI, it is a rapidly growing option. In our testing, we've been especially impressed with its speed of response. It does, however, struggle with more detailed responses.
It's good news for the world's most popular chatbot. ChatGPT landed just behind Le Chat in the rankings.
While Le Chat can only share user prompts with service providers, OpenAI can also share them with affiliates.
OpenAI was, however, the highest rated in terms of transparency on data privacy and scored highly for its low level of data collection.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Meta was the least private AI chatbot in 9th, followed quickly by Gemini at 8th and Copilot just behind it at 7th. Deepseek fell in 6th place, and Claude came 4th.
In terms of data collection and sharing, Meta AI was the worst one by quite some way, almost doubling the score of the next worst, Gemini.
If privacy is a big concern for you when it comes to AI, the good news is that plenty of great AI chatbots scored well here. Mistral is a great option if you're willing to try something new, but equally, ChatGPT is just behind it across the board.
Two of the other biggest competitors came just behind with Grok in 3rd and Anthropic's Claude in 4th. All four of these are not only scoring high on privacy tests but also happen to be some of the best-performing AI chatbots available right now.
It is surprising to see such big names like Meta AI, Gemini, and Copilot so far down the list. The report explains that this is mostly down to how much data they share and how unclear their data privacy policies are.