Perplexity (PDF upload): where do your PDFs go?
Sovereignty score
31/100
Critical riskPerplexity (PDF upload) is published by Perplexity AI, Inc. (United States). The vendor falls under the US CLOUD Act: US authorities can request your files, whatever the hosting country.
Score calculated for this tool alone, without document-type weighting.
Checkpoints
- CLOUD Act
- Exposed US vendor operating mainly on cloud infrastructure located in the United States.
- Jurisdiction
- Non-EU United States — US law — subject to the US CLOUD Act
- Servers
- Non-EU Cloud infrastructure hosted mainly in the United States (AWS / GCP)
- Retention
- Persistent Attachments deleted after about 7 days; conversation history kept until deletion
- AI
- Possible On Free, Pro and Max accounts, retention for AI training ("AI Data Retention") is on by default (manual opt-out required; off on Enterprise).
Quick answers
Is Perplexity (PDF upload) subject to the CLOUD Act?
Yes. US vendor operating mainly on cloud infrastructure located in the United States.
Where are files uploaded to Perplexity (PDF upload) hosted?
Cloud infrastructure hosted mainly in the United States (AWS / GCP)
How long does Perplexity (PDF upload) keep your documents?
Attachments deleted after about 7 days; conversation history kept until deletion.
Does Perplexity (PDF upload) use your files to train AI?
On Free, Pro and Max accounts, retention for AI training ("AI Data Retention") is on by default (manual opt-out required; off on Enterprise).
Which certifications does Perplexity (PDF upload) claim?
SOC 2 Type II · EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
Our analysis
Often used as shadow IT to quickly analyse PDF reports or contracts through an individual account where training is on by default.
Source: Perplexity AI Privacy Policy ·
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