Cursor privacy: what to check before sending source code
Separate training, retention, permissions and context. Review the actual configuration before giving an agent confidential project material.
Privacy in an AI editor cannot be reduced to asking whether a supplier can see your code. You need to know what leaves the computer, who participates in processing it, how long information may remain stored and what actions the agent can perform. A satisfactory answer to one question does not automatically settle the others.
A change of ownership is a sensible moment to review these conditions, but does not itself prove that data treatment has changed. Evaluate the actual account configuration, applicable contract and current documentation. Do not replace that work with a conclusion based entirely on a company name or a general impression of the industry.
What Privacy Mode says
On its security page, Cursor states that it does not train on customer data when Privacy Mode is enabled. This is the supplier’s statement about a particular setting.
The data-use documentation describes retention exceptions for abuse investigations and says requests using your own API key still pass through Cursor’s backend.
The practical consequence is to verify the actual workspace configuration. Do not assume a preference on a personal account applies to every team member. Record who administers the account, which options are enabled and the date checked. If a project requirement depends on a specific contractual condition, confirm it before providing the material.
Context includes apparently harmless material
An error message can contain a customer address. A test file can include an old token that still works. A database example can reproduce personal information. Calling something a development environment does not automatically make its contents suitable for sharing with an external service.
Prefer a reproducible case using invented data. Remove fields unrelated to the defect and replace identifiers with synthetic values while retaining the formats needed for the test. If an error depends on an identification number, explain the expected validation and use a synthetic example. Do not send the entire table simply because it happens to be accessible on the machine.
Permission to read is different from permission to act
Define separately what the agent may inspect and what it may change. An investigation may need source files and reduced logs without deployment access, payment controls or administrative credentials. A smaller task makes it easier to explain which permissions are necessary and which are unrelated to the objective.
Consider a hypothetical investigation of an email-delivery failure. The agent can examine integration code and an error response with actual recipients removed. It does not need the service password or permission to launch a campaign. If an external test becomes necessary, identify a test account and recipient explicitly, with a person responsible for observing the result.
Keep a short record for each project
Record the purpose, allowed data types, connected tools, authorized environment and responsible person. Add links to the terms reviewed and instructions for reporting an unintended disclosure. The record should be understandable to the people using the tool, not only to whoever approved the purchase.
When a required condition cannot be confirmed, keep that material outside the workflow and find a reduced way to reproduce the problem. Development can continue without treating a contractual uncertainty as implicit permission. Revisit the record when the supplier, integration or type of information changes. Keep the previous version so that later reviewers can understand what was approved at the time.
The continuity plan for teams using Cursor helps organize dependencies. The evaluation of Grok and Cursor together separates model quality from operational permissions. Privacy configuration belongs in that evaluation, but cannot replace understanding the material being sent.
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Tiago F SantiagoComments
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