How to Protect Sensitive Information When Using AI Tools
Minimize the input, inspect account controls, and review outputs before sharing them with another person or service.
Decide what the tool actually needs
Before pasting a file, separate the task from the document. To improve the tone of an email, an assistant may need the message’s structure and purpose; it may not need the customer’s real name, account number, address, or complete conversation history.
Treat passwords, payment identifiers, health records, confidential customer material, unreleased plans, and private employee information as sensitive. Follow your organization’s rules and any applicable obligations. These practical steps are general information and do not replace an assessment of a specific service or a legal requirement.
Use placeholders and retain the key locally
Replace unnecessary identifiers before a trial. For example, turn “Call Nora Smith at [real phone] about invoice [real number]” into “Contact [Customer A] using the approved contact method about [Invoice A].” Keep any mapping between placeholders and real identities outside the AI service.
Inspect hidden context as well as visible text. A copied paragraph may include a signature, and an uploaded file may contain comments, embedded names, or extra pages. Use the smallest relevant excerpt and remove information the task does not require.
Rewrite this redacted draft for clarity. Preserve every placeholder exactly. Do not infer the identities, contact details, account values, or missing facts behind the placeholders.
Read the controls for the exact account
Check current provider documentation and the actual account settings for retention, training use, history, sharing, deletion, and connected applications. Consumer, business, education, and enterprise accounts can have different terms. A setting available in one subscription does not establish protection in another.
Understand what a control changes. Turning off a visible history feature, for example, should not be assumed to eliminate every form of processing or retention. Read the provider’s explanation instead of relying on a label. If the required terms are unclear, keep the sensitive task outside that service.
Limit connected data and shared links
Before connecting storage, mail, or a workspace, review the scope of access. Confirm which account, folders, projects, or messages become available and whether the connection can perform actions as well as read. Grant only access that is useful for the task and review it when the task ends.
When creating a shared link, check who can open it and whether the content includes previous turns or attached material. A link that is convenient for a colleague may also expose information to anyone who receives it. Use your approved sharing system when the audience needs to be restricted.
Inspect the output before reusing it
A generated summary can repeat an identifier you overlooked or merge details from different people. Check the output before emailing it, pasting it into a document, taking a screenshot, or publishing it. Redaction is not finished merely because the input looked safe.
For a customer draft, restore only the details needed by the intended recipient. For a public example, use clearly fictional information instead. Keep an original source copy so you can verify that the assistant did not change an amount, date, or responsibility while rewriting.
Understand what our browser utilities do
The text cleaner, word counter, and other utilities on this site process text in the open browser page. Their application code does not upload the input to an AI service or store it in local storage. They are not an encrypted document vault or a permanent backup.
Your browser, extensions, operating system, and hosting request logs have separate behavior. Do not put private information into a directory search, because its text appears in the URL. Read our Privacy Policy for the current website implementation and retain important working copies in a suitable system.