AI tools and client data
Is Microsoft Dragon Copilot safe for client data?
Short answer: Whether Microsoft Dragon Copilot is safe for client data turns on which plan your staff are on, which account they signed in with, and what you have told them they may put in it — not on the product itself. On Dragon Copilot (clinician documentation) and on Dragon Copilot experience for nurses, Microsoft may use what the appointment recording contains to train its models. Every fact on this page is Microsoft's own, quoted from its own pages and dated, and where we did not find a statement this page says so rather than filling the gap. Obsidian Ridge's free 30-day AI security assessment shows which AI tools your staff actually use.
See which AI tools your staff usePlan by plan, in Microsoft’s own words
Microsoft's ambient clinical documentation assistant, the product that absorbed Nuance DAX Copilot. It records the appointment, writes the note into the record system and takes dictation. Microsoft publishes exactly where the recording goes afterwards, and the answer is longer than one sentence.
| What you are asking | Dragon Copilot (clinician documentation) | Dragon Copilot experience for nurses |
|---|---|---|
| Trains the vendor's models by default | Yes, on anonymized data. Microsoft publishes no way for a customer to decline the research environment the anonymizing happens in.“Dragon Copilot’s AI/ML models are trained solely on anonymized data.” source, read | Yes, on anonymized data, and this page gives the window: the anonymizing happens within 90 days of capture, not at capture.“Data is anonymized within 90 days, and AI/ML models are trained solely on anonymized data.” source, read |
| How to turn training off | Not found in the pages we read. | Not found in the pages we read. |
| How long data is kept | No period is published here. Microsoft points at the data protection agreement instead, so what applies to your practice is in your contract.“Customer Data processed by Dragon Copilot is retained, deleted, and purged as set forth in the DPA.” source, read | Up to 90 days for the recording, the transcript and the flowsheet data. This is the one row in this registry with a published number for audio.“Audio, transcript, and flowsheet data is retained for up to 90 days.” source, read |
| What an admin can see or control | Not found in the pages we read. | Access is scoped to the one person who recorded it, which is worth knowing before you ask for an audit trail.“Only the Dragon Copilot user who recorded the conversation has access.” source, read |
| Single sign-on | Not found in the pages we read. | Not found in the pages we read. |
| Business Associate Agreement | Not found in the pages we read. | Not found in the pages we read. |
| Where the data is processed | Microsoft publishes a table on this page: a US customer's data is at rest in the US, a Canadian customer's in Canada, a UK customer's in the UK.“Microsoft Dragon Copilot stores Customer Data at rest as outlined below.” source, read | The United States only, and Microsoft says the data does not leave the region.“Nursing features are only available in the US and the data never leaves the geographic region.” source, read |
An empty cell is not a reassurance and not a criticism. "Not found in the pages we read." means the Microsoft pages listed under Sources, read on the dates shown, do not answer it — so there is nothing for us to repeat, and something for you to ask Microsoft before client information goes near it.
What this means for
The duty does not change because the tool is new. What changes is where the client information ends up.
- Law firms. A client confidence pasted into a personal account has left the firm’s control. Our law firm page sets out the duties we build evidence for; the decision here is whether a personal account may touch a client matter at all.
- Dental and medical practices. We didn't find a BAA statement in the pages listed below; ask Microsoft before any patient data goes in. See dental practices.
- CPA and accounting firms. Your written information security plan has to describe the tools people actually use, not the ones you approved. See accounting firms.
- Financial advisers. Client account data in a personal assistant is the exposure; see financial advisers.
- Software teams. A coding assistant reads the repository and can run commands, so the question is what it can reach, not what it was asked. See what AI agents on work laptops can reach.
How to tell which version your staff use
The plan is the whole answer, and you cannot tell from the outside. Three ways to find out, in order of how much they prove.
1. Ask
Quick, free, and incomplete. People forget the tool they installed once and the account they signed in with.
2. Look at the billing and the admin console
This finds what the business pays for. It does not find a personal account, which is the one that matters here.
3. Look on the computers
A tool somebody installed themselves never appears in an IT list. Obsidian Ridge’s free 30-day AI security assessment takes a quiet inventory for 30 days and shows what each tool could reach, then a CISSP goes through it with you. See the assessment, or read a sample set of findings.
Settings to check today
From Microsoft’s own documentation. Each one is a change somebody can make this afternoon.
- Know that dictation is kept twice as long as the consultation data, for voice adaptation, and that it is a separate clock.“Voice dictation and text for user-specific adaptation are retained for up to 180 days, then securely purged.” source, read
- Write the consent-withdrawal route into your own procedure now. It is a support ticket, not a button, so somebody has to know it exists.“a customer can log a ticket with customer support to have any Customer Data that can be linked back to the individual patient purged…” source, read
- And know the limit of that route before you tell a patient what withdrawing consent will do. What was already anonymized stays.“Resulting anonymized data created by Microsoft prior to the patient’s revocation of consent will not be purged.” source, read
Worth knowing
- This is the sentence to read twice. The audio of the appointment, the note and the clinician's corrections all leave the service for a research environment.“Microsoft securely transmits select Customer Data (such as audio recordings and transcriptions, clinical documentation, and corrections or additions to generated clinical documentation)…” source, read
- People can read it. Microsoft says the access is narrow and controlled, and it says the access exists.“In strictly limited scenarios, Customer Data may be subject to "human review" by select Microsoft employees and subprocessors with tightly managed controls…” source, read
- Including annotators, whose job is to read it. That is how the anonymized training set gets made.“This access also includes the use of human annotators to assist with the creation of anonymized data sets used for model improvement…” source, read
- Microsoft says its anonymizing is built to meet the HIPAA de-identification standard, which is the strongest statement in this entry and the reason the rest of it is tolerable.“the process meets both the standard for de-identification under the United States’ Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)…” source, read
- The governing documents Microsoft names here are the data protection agreement and the service terms. We found no statement in these pages about signing a Business Associate Agreement for this product, which is the question to put to Microsoft in writing.“Microsoft uses Customer Data to provide Dragon Copilot (and for incidental business operations) in accordance with the DPA…” source, read
Questions we get asked
Is Microsoft Dragon Copilot safe for client data?
Whether Microsoft Dragon Copilot is safe for client data turns on which plan your staff are on, which account they signed in with, and what you have told them they may put in it — not on the product itself.
On Dragon Copilot (clinician documentation) and on Dragon Copilot experience for nurses, Microsoft may use what the appointment recording contains to train its models.
Every fact on this page is Microsoft's own, quoted from its own pages and dated, and where we did not find a statement this page says so rather than filling the gap.
Does Microsoft train its models on what we put into Microsoft Dragon Copilot?
On Dragon Copilot (clinician documentation) and on Dragon Copilot experience for nurses, Microsoft may use what the appointment recording contains to train its models. On Dragon Copilot (clinician documentation): Yes, on anonymized data.
Microsoft publishes no way for a customer to decline the research environment the anonymizing happens in. Microsoft's own words: "Dragon Copilot’s AI/ML models are trained solely on anonymized data." (read 2026-11-03).
On Dragon Copilot experience for nurses: Yes, on anonymized data, and this page gives the window: the anonymizing happens within 90 days of capture, not at capture.
Microsoft's own words: "Data is anonymized within 90 days, and AI/ML models are trained solely on anonymized data." (read 2026-11-03).
How long does Microsoft keep what we put into Microsoft Dragon Copilot?
On Dragon Copilot (clinician documentation): No period is published here. Microsoft points at the data protection agreement instead, so what applies to your practice is in your contract.
Microsoft's own words: "Customer Data processed by Dragon Copilot is retained, deleted, and purged as set forth in the DPA." (read 2026-11-03).
On Dragon Copilot experience for nurses: Up to 90 days for the recording, the transcript and the flowsheet data. This is the one row in this registry with a published number for audio.
Microsoft's own words: "Audio, transcript, and flowsheet data is retained for up to 90 days." (read 2026-11-03).
Can an administrator read what we put into Microsoft Dragon Copilot?
On Dragon Copilot (clinician documentation): Not found in the pages we read. On Dragon Copilot experience for nurses: Access is scoped to the one person who recorded it, which is worth knowing before you ask for an audit trail.
Microsoft's own words: "Only the Dragon Copilot user who recorded the conversation has access." (read 2026-11-03).
Will Microsoft sign a Business Associate Agreement for Microsoft Dragon Copilot?
We didn't find a BAA statement in the pages listed below; ask Microsoft before any patient data goes in.
How do we find out which version of Microsoft Dragon Copilot our staff are using?
Microsoft sells this to practices rather than to individuals, so there is no personal account to find.
What decides the answers above is which plan your practice is on and what your own administrator has switched on, both of which are in your subscription and your admin console rather than on anybody's laptop.
Obsidian Ridge's free 30-day AI security assessment covers the tools nobody approved, which is the other half of the picture.
Sources
Microsoft’s own pages, with the date each was read. Nothing on this page comes from anywhere else.
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/industry/healthcare/dragon-copilot/whitepapers/privacy, read
- support.microsoft.com/en-us/dragon-copilot/nurses/dragon-copilot-experience-for-nurses-faqs, read
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