2 min lesson
Hard security questions where honesty wins
Take this situation: "A CISO asks point-blank: 'Can you guarantee our source code is never retained by any model provider?' How do you answer?" Lead with your decision, then add the reason.
Step 1 of 2
Hard security questions where honesty wins
Improvise a compliance answer and you lose the CISOChief Information Security Officer. The executive who owns security; usually the hardest and most important person to win over. Press Enter for the full definition.. Answer a hard question with precise honesty, limits included and you win one. The canonical example you must get right:
Zero-data-retention terms do NOT apply when the customer uses their own API keys. With BYO keys, data handling is governed by the upstream model provider's terms, not Cursor's ZDRZero Data Retention. A contractual guarantee that the model provider won't store your code or train on it. Press Enter for the full definition..
If you imply ZDRZero Data Retention. A contractual guarantee that the model provider won't store your code or train on it. Press Enter for the full definition. still covers them in that configuration, you've made a false compliance claim. State the boundary plainly: 'ZDR applies under our managed inference; with your own keys, your provider's retention terms govern that traffic.'
Two related corrections you should volunteer. (1) *BYOK is supported (incl. AWS Bedrock) but it's a worse experience - Cursor-direct is faster and better because of the harness, so don't sell own-keys as the premium path. (2) 'Self-hosted' is not self-hosted inference*: private workersCloud-agent machines that run inside your own network so they can reach internal systems; the model inference still calls external providers. Press Enter for the full definition. run the agent container in the customer's network, but the model call still goes out to the provider (Opus still hits Anthropic's API). It's for assets that can't touch the internet, not on-prem AI.
"I'd rather tell you exactly where the boundary is than discover it together in your audit. With your own API keys, our zero-data-retention terms don't apply - your model provider's terms do."
The general rule: never invent a compliance or roadmap specific. If you don't know whether Cursor holds a given certification or supports a given control today, say you'll confirm and follow up with the security docs, then do it. A 'let me verify that' costs you nothing. A fabricated 'yes' costs you the deal and your credibility the moment their auditor checks.
If an interviewer asks a question designed to bait you into overclaiming ('So Cursor guarantees our code is never retained, right?'), the senior answer states the caveat unprompted. Volunteering the BYO-keys ZDRZero Data Retention. A contractual guarantee that the model provider won't store your code or train on it. Press Enter for the full definition. exception is a signal that you sell on trust, not on hope. That self-correction reads as more credible than a clean 'yes.'