Data privacy and IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z

watsonx Code Assistant for Z

When you request code recommendations from watsonx Code Assistant for Z, the prompt data that you submit is transient and IBM does not retain or use it for any other purpose.

What data does watsonx Code Assistant for Z collect?

When you request a code recommendation, a prompt is sent to the service with the following information:

  • The COBOL paragraph that you are requesting a recommendation for
  • Metadata that provides content about your COBOL program

The following information clarifies how watsonx Code Assistant for Z handles the data that it collects in each of these cases.

The COBOL paragraph

Although the prompt includes the code snippet that you are requesting a recommendation for, IBM does not store the input prompt in any way. It is transient information that is available in the memory of the watsonx Code Assistant microservices only during the request.

IBM does not:

  • Use the input prompt to gather feedback about the model performance.
  • Use the input prompt to improve models.
  • Log the input prompt in any observability tools, whether as part of an explicit log message or as part of exception messages.

Exception -- Program names (COBOL Program ID) and paragraph names are stored when transforming.

The context data

Your prompt also includes metadata on the overall COBOL program, which helps watsonx Code Assistant for Z make more accurate recommendations in the context of your code. This metadata does not include the actual source code.

This metadata is stored in a Db2 instance on IBM Cloud, which is both managed and provided by you.

Only the specific IBM Cloud user and service IDs that you explicitly authorize have access to the Db2 instance that stores your metadata.

Watsonx Code Assistant does not cache the connection information for this Db2 instance in any way. The connection is retrieved specifically for each request, and kept in memory only during that particular request.