AI Features Enabled by Default

What are AI features enabled by default?

AI features enabled by default are new AI tools a vendor turns on in your account without asking you first. One day your help desk starts suggesting replies, your CRM starts summarizing calls, or your docs app offers to rewrite pages. Nobody on your team said yes.

"Default" is the setting that applies if no one changes it. When a feature is on by default, your data can start flowing to it the moment it launches. That can include your customer data, sent to an outside AI subprocessor.

The vendor's terms may allow this. OpenAI's Services Agreement, for example, says OpenAI "may update the Services periodically" and may update the agreement with reasonable notice, which can include posting it on its website. An AI feature can arrive with new data rules attached.

How you can notice

• A new AI section or addendum appears in the vendor's terms or privacy policy.
• The vendor's subprocessor list adds an AI provider such as OpenAI or Anthropic.
• A new toggle appears in admin settings, already switched on.
• Release notes or in-app banners announce AI features with an "opt out" link.
• Training or data use wording changes from "opt in" to "opt out."

A real change we caught

Venpo flagged that Lovable now trains its AI on your prompts and code by default. Venpo also reported that Mixpanel added 150% overage fees and removed the AI data opt-in. Under the new terms, de-identified AI inputs and outputs that once needed an opt-in can be used to improve AI features without one.

Why it matters to you

Data moves before anyone reviews it. If a feature is on from day one, your records may reach a new AI provider before your security or privacy owner has looked at the terms.

Your own promises can break. If your contracts with customers list the subprocessors you use, an AI feature switched on by a vendor can add a new one without your knowledge.

Regulators have noticed. FTC staff wrote in a February 2024 blog post that quietly adopting more permissive data practices, such as AI training, through a retroactive change to terms may be unfair or deceptive. That post is guidance, not a rule, and it focuses on consumers.

What to check

• After each vendor update, look in admin settings for new AI toggles and decide whether they should be on.
• Check whether new AI features send data to an outside provider, and which one.
• Read the AI terms that come with the feature for training and retention rules.
• Ask key vendors to agree in writing that new AI features stay off for your account until an admin turns them on.

How Venpo helps

Venpo watches your vendors' terms, AI terms, privacy policies and subprocessor lists and emails you when a new AI feature, AI provider or opt-out rule appears. The Fine Print Scan answers, for each vendor, whether it trains AI on your data.