“Private AI.” You've heard the word. You've probably signed for it. I'm not sure you've verified it. Here's what made me look closer.
Anthropic Calls It “Private”
Anthropic—like most major AI providers—markets certain deployment tiers as “private.” It's a reassuring word, and one that shows up in plenty of vendor contracts and sales decks. But look past the label and ask three simple questions: Do you host it? Do you own it? Can you see inside it? For most organizations using these “private” tiers, the honest answer to all three is no.
Private by Contract, Not by Possession
There's a meaningful difference between a vendor promising privacy in a terms-of-service agreement, and an organization actually possessing the infrastructure, model, and data pipeline that determines what happens to its information. A contractual promise can change with the next terms-of-service update, the next acquisition, or the next subpoena—and you, the customer, have no visibility into the systems enforcing that promise in the meantime.
“Private by possession” looks different: your documents, your encryption, your infrastructure boundaries—visible and verifiable, not taken on faith. That's the standard MetaWurks is built around, so that when you call something private, it actually is.
Join the Conversation
Have you ever checked what “private” actually means in your AI vendor's contract? Let us know what you found.