How can a free-tier healthcare organization opt out of Data Contribution / AI training?

[Liam]

We are a dental practice using Confluence on the free tier. We recently received an email from Atlassian stating that our organization's data may be used for AI training purposes.

As a dental practice, we are a covered entity under HIPAA, which restricts how our data can be used by third parties. We do not consent to our data being used for AI training or data contribution.

However, we are unable to find the "Data Contribution" settings in our organization's administration panel — we believe this option may not be available on the free tier.

Can anyone advise on how a free-tier customer in a regulated healthcare industry can formally opt out? Is there a way for Atlassian to manually exclude our organization, or is upgrading to a paid plan the only path forward?

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Liam 

Short answer: Based upon reading Atlassian materials and experimentation, free license level customers apparently have little to no control over Atlassian use of their data in this manner at this time.

Announced in an email to Org / Product Admins this week for "Upcoming changes to how Atlassian uses your data", there will be new settings to impact Data Contributions at various license levels.  That information, and included knowledgebase (KB) links, suggest updating your settings before 1 May 2026 for the changes applying in August 2026.  They do not describe what is currently happening regarding data contribution to "AI" tooling / training.

However, the described settings in the KB article do not appear accessible for a free license level.  Perhaps they will appear as we get closer to the August 2026 threshold.

https://support.atlassian.com/security-and-access-policies/docs/data-contribution-settings/

In my experience, this seems a common situation for free license, internet products: the customer has limited expectations to owning the data entered in the product.

There is documentation on which Org configurations / licensing will be excluded from data contribution:

https://support.atlassian.com/security-and-access-policies/docs/data-contribution-settings-availability/#Atlassian-organizations-that-don%E2%80%99t-contribute-data

Kind regards,
Bill

[marc -Collabello--Phase Locked-]

Most likely you won't get an answer here.  My recommendation is to contact support.

[Liam]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think free tier accounts can contact support!

[marc -Collabello--Phase Locked-]

Here's more information: Atlassian’s new data collection policy protects rich customers while AI eats the rest 

[Kris Klima _K15t_]

Hi @Liam 

You can use a no-login option to contact Atlassian and try argue a against data collection

Login troubles? (No‑login path)

1. Visit our support page: https://www.atlassian.com/company/contact

2. Select “Pricing, billing and licensing.”

3. Continue without logging in.

4. Enter your email.

5. In “How can we help you,” select “Other.”

6. Skip the URL fields if they don’t apply.

7. Describe your issue in “Your Question.” This will open a ticket with Atlassian Support.

Having said that.....

Compliance is a two way street - it governs what tools (and their vendors) can collect but also puts burden on users to select tools that are compliant in regards to specific industry regulations.

I don't need a FIM certified motorcycle helmet for regular traffic but I need one to ride on a race track (regulatory, insurance, etc. reasons).

Atlassian would argue that they do offer a no-data-collection option that is HIPAA compliant - https://www.atlassian.com/trust/compliance/resources/hipaa - on their Enterprise tier.

What I would do

Contact Atlassian using the no-login option and ask what data are collected. 

There is a good chance that the scope of collected data is different across tiers and/or the data collected do not interfere with HIPAA requirements that apply to your use case.

From experience, non-Enterprise Confluence is used in health care (again, the devil might be in the details...) but there are Marketplace apps that teams use to ensure compliance (HIPAA, QMS, etc.).

For example, there's Password for Confluence by Acemood that encrypts your data and claims HIPAA compliance. And the app is free for up to 10 users. So you can reach out to the vendor and discuss your specific use case and compliance requirements.

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

@Liam 

I don’t want to sound like I’m doing product placement, but if I were in your position, I would seriously consider spending a bit more on at least a Standard or Premium subscription.

Especially in a healthcare organization, where you usually need stronger control over your tools, permissions, and overall setup, the extra investment is often worth it.