If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your private repos

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by lanxevo3 on Friday March 27, 2026 @05:16PM (#47548365)

To be precise: the opt-out is for GitHub Copilot training specifically, which has always required opt-in for public repos under their policy. The change Apr 24 is about private repos being included by default unless you opt out. If you're using Copilot in your private repos, definitely opt out unless you're comfortable with that. The setting is at github.com/settings/copilot — takes 30 seconds.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by qaadika on Friday March 27, 2026 @06:16PM (#47549093)

It should take 0 seconds, because I shouldn't have to do it.

That's my bar. My time is my time, and anything that takes time from me better have a damn good excuse. Github is not bringing any good reasons to the table to justify making me take my time to protect privacy I've had by default up to now.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by dotancohen on Friday March 27, 2026 @06:07PM (#47548993)

  > takes 30 seconds.

No, it takes an hour of perusing HN every day to stumble upon this. That's 20 hours per month, 240 hours per year, shall I bill it to GitHub or to Microsoft directly?

Corrupting Steinmetz' quip to Ford: it's 30 seconds to flip the switch, 240 hours to know that a switch needs to be flipped.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by collinmanderson on Sunday March 29, 2026 @09:32AM (#47563006)

I think they emailed everyone about this, but I might be wrong. Maybe they only emailed people who actually use copilot.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by martinwoodward on Friday March 27, 2026 @05:33PM (#47548561)

It wasn’t previously opt-in.

Previously we didn’t do any training on usage. However as other products have come into the market they do train on usage. We’ve been training on our internal usage for just over a year and have seen some major improvements. For details see of the types of improvements we’ve seen from training on our internal usage check out this article: https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/copilot-new-e...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by homebrewer on Friday March 27, 2026 @05:44PM (#47548706)

You can always ask your parent company to train on their usage. I hear they have incredibly massive codebases: Windows, Office, MSSQL, which stay out of training data for some reason.

I thought neural nets never repeat the training data verbatim, and copyright does not pass through them, so what's the problem?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by NewsaHackO on Friday March 27, 2026 @06:27PM (#47549202)

How do you know that isn't already the case?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by IcyWindows on Friday March 27, 2026 @06:28PM (#47549213)

Who said they don't?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by mentalgear on Friday March 27, 2026 @06:32PM (#47549256)

This seems reasonable, maybe too much so.

> If they want to incentivise people to contribute their sources and copilot sessions, they could easily make it opt-in on a per-repository basis and provide some incentive, like an increased token quota.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by ClikeX on Friday March 27, 2026 @06:41PM (#47549344)

The setting isn't even visible to everyone. If you're currently in an org that manages copilot business, it's gone. I imagine it instantly opts you back in when you leave an org.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by darthwalsh on Friday March 27, 2026 @11:26PM (#47551295)

My work was careful to explain: if you associate your personal GitHub account with their work org copilot, then they are the ones who manage copilot.

If you wouldn't use your personal email account on your work computer, I don't see why you wouldn't create a new GitHub account only for work.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you don't opt out by Apr 24 GitHub will train on your ... by bl4kers on Saturday March 28, 2026 @04:00PM (#47557705)

There have been instances where GitHub has banned users for using an email address from a custom domain. If your account is associated with an enterprise plan the chances of that happening decrease significantly. Also puts you in much better position for recourse

[ Parent | on HN ]