What is an AI security questionnaire?

A structured set of questions that an enterprise buyer asks an AI vendor during a security review. It covers data handling, retention, logging, encryption, authentication, incident response, subprocessors and compliance posture. The point is to convert vague claims into specific, comparable answers.

How is it different from a generic SaaS questionnaire?

AI vendors handle prompt data, which often contains the most sensitive operational text in the business. The questionnaire focuses on what reaches the model, what is retained in raw form, and which provider relationships sit behind the vendor.

Where do I find Privian's answers?

The Privian Blueprint is the single document that answers most of these questions in one place. Deeper detail lives on the Trust Center, the data path page and the architecture resource.

The AI security questionnaire

Most AI vendor reviews start with the same problem: the vendor's marketing site is full of confident claims, and the buyer needs to convert those claims into specific, comparable answers. A security questionnaire is the tool that does that.

This article proposes a reusable, eight-section framework. Privian uses the same structure to answer buyer questionnaires; the Privian Blueprint is the single document that maps each Privian answer to the sections below.

A good questionnaire is short, specific and answered with implementation, not adjectives.

Framework

Eight-section AI security questionnaire

01
Data handling
02
Retention
03
Logging
04
Encryption
05
Authentication
06
Incident response
07
Subprocessors
08
Compliance

How to use it

Send the relevant sections to the vendor, ask for written answers, and require a reference to the implementation for each answer (a page, a doc, a commit, a runbook). Sections without a reference are the highest-risk part of the review.

The questions

Each section below contains a small, reusable set of questions. The intent is breadth before depth: cover all eight sections at a basic level before going deep on the one or two that matter most for the use case.

Data handling

What prompt data reaches the model, in what form?
Which fields are masked, redacted or dropped before egress?
Are responses post-processed before they return to the application?
Is anything retained in raw form at any hop?

Retention

What is retained, in what form, and for how long?
What is the deletion process, and how is it verified?
How are backups handled, and are they in scope of deletion?

Logging & observability

What is logged on the request hot path?
Are logs sanitised, and if so, by what mechanism?
Who can read logs, and under what controls?

Encryption

How is data protected in transit and at rest?
Which provider credentials are stored, and how are they encrypted?
Is any plaintext ever written to disk?

Authentication

How are API keys issued, rotated and revoked?
Is SSO supported, and via which protocols?
How are admin actions authenticated and audited?

Incident response

Is there a documented incident-response plan, with notification timing?
What is the security-contact path?
Are post-incident write-ups published or shared on request?

Subprocessors

Which subprocessors are in scope, and which functions do they perform?
How are subprocessor changes communicated?
Is BYOK supported so the buyer owns the provider relationship?

Compliance

Is there a DPA in place?
Which compliance frameworks does the vendor align to today?
Where does the data physically travel, and under which transfer regime?

Where Privian sits

Privian's answers to this questionnaire are documented across the Trust Center, the data path, the architecture resource, the security resource and the subprocessor list. The single document most procurement reviewers ask for is the Blueprint:

Written under our editorial principles: implementation-grounded, honest about limitations, educational first.

Frequently asked questions

What is an AI security questionnaire?: A structured set of questions that an enterprise buyer asks an AI vendor during a security review. It covers data handling, retention, logging, encryption, authentication, incident response, subprocessors and compliance posture. The point is to convert vague claims into specific, comparable answers.
How is it different from a generic SaaS questionnaire?: AI vendors handle prompt data, which often contains the most sensitive operational text in the business. The questionnaire focuses on what reaches the model, what is retained in raw form, and which provider relationships sit behind the vendor.
Can I reuse the framework on this page?: Yes. The categories and example questions are deliberately generic. Privian uses the same structure to answer buyer questionnaires; the Blueprint maps each Privian answer to a section below.
Where do I find Privian's answers?: The Privian Blueprint is the single document that answers most of these questions in one place. Deeper detail lives on the Trust Center, the data path page and the architecture resource.