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Anthropic

How safe is Claude for mental health & psychology?

GDPR profileOur summary of what the provider itself publishes about your data: EU hosting possible, no training on your data for business use, and self-hosting available. Caution means a model with a documented issue, such as an investigation by a regulator. How we measure for mental health & psychologyStrong

Claude has a strong published GDPR profile and, with the right business settings, is well usable in mental health & psychology.

Where does Claude stand in mental health & psychology?

Shared spot 1 of 29 options for mental health care & psychology (professional tools and general assistants) on the GDPR profile. 11 options, like Claude, have a Strong profile. Each tile is an option we track for this field; click for the check.

Strong11
Good5
Limited5
Unknown1
Caution7

Published safeguards

✓EU hosting possibleYes
✓No training on your data (business)Yes
–Self-hostable (on-premise)Not known

Data is stored in the US by default; EU data residency is possible via AWS Bedrock or Google Vertex AI (EU region). Business tiers and the API do not train on your input; consumer tiers do, unless you opt out.

How to use Claude safely

  • Use the business variant and sign a data processing agreement (DPA).
  • Do not enter unnecessary personal data into prompts; anonymise where possible.
  • Enable EU data residency where the provider offers it.
  • Keep a professional in the loop: mental health records contain special category personal data (health data, GDPR).

Stronger or equally strong in mental health & psychology

SessieverslagVOF Rohlfs van Esch (Netherlands)MedendoMedendo B.V. (Utrecht, NL)VerticaiVerticai B.V. (Utrecht, the Netherlands)NotizyLinku (Netherlands)SessieklapSessieklap (Netherlands)

Latest developments

9 November 2026Claude Code stores approved commands containing passwords in settings.local.json

If you choose "Yes, and don't ask again" in Claude Code, the tool saves the command verbatim in .claude/settings.local.json, including passwords or API keys. Apiiro found real secrets in 1,122 of 104,185 public copies on GitHub, including 379 database passwords. Keep the file out of git, use variables for secrets, and replace any keys that have already leaked. source

November 2 2026Message threads (beta) fall outside Zero Data Retention

With message threads in the Claude API, Anthropic stores the conversation, the system prompt and the tools on the server, encrypted in memory and not on disk, until up to one hour after the last use. The feature does not qualify for Zero Data Retention; your other ZDR agreements still apply. If you work with personal data under ZDR, only enable threads if your DPIA covers it. source

26 October 2026Swedish government office blocks the browser version on work computers

From 26 October, the Swedish government office blocks ChatGPT and Claude on work computers because there is no formal contract and there are information security risks; Microsoft Copilot remains permitted. Business use therefore requires a contract with data processing terms. source

Questions

How safe is Claude for mental health & psychology?
Claude has a strong published GDPR profile and is, with the right business settings, well suited to mental health & psychology. EU options, no training on your data and/or self-hosting available.
Does Claude train on my data?
Data is stored in the US by default; EU data residency is possible via AWS Bedrock or Google Vertex AI (EU region). Business tiers and the API do not train on your input; consumer tiers do, unless you opt out.
What should I watch out for with AI in mental health & psychology?
Mental health records contain special category personal data (health data, GDPR). Only use systems with 7510 certification, a data processing agreement and EU hosting; audio recordings of therapy sessions must not be sent unencrypted to external servers. AI-supported diagnostics and treatment decisions fall under the EU AI Act (high risk) and require human oversight and an audit trail. A BIG-registered professional remains ultimately responsible for the content of the record.

Source documents

platform.claude.comclaude.com

Everything about Claude Best AI for mental health & psychology

Summarised by the editorial team from provider documentation · not legal advice

Last checked: 9 October 2026 · How we check

Next stepAll 29 options for mental health & psychologyProfessional tools and general assistants side by side, on GDPR profile, price and quality.

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