What Not to Paste into AI

Outcome: use AI freely without handing your (or someone else’s) private information to a stranger.

Who it’s for: anyone pasting real work, real documents, or real personal details into a chatbot.

The one rule: Treat every prompt as if it could be read by a stranger or made public. If you wouldn’t say it out loud in a crowded room, don’t paste it.

Why it matters: on most consumer AI tools, your chats may be used to train the model unless you opt out — and a thumbs-up can hand over that chat too. Once it’s pasted, you can’t pull it back. This isn’t hypothetical: within about three weeks of allowing it, Samsung engineers had fed confidential source code and an internal meeting recording into a chatbot — and the company banned it.

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Never paste

• ☐ Passwords, API keys, security codes.
• ☐ Financial details — card numbers, bank info, account numbers.
• ☐ Government IDs — Social Security, passport, license numbers.
• ☐ Health or legal records — yours or anyone else’s.
• ☐ Other people’s personal data — it’s not yours to share.
• ☐ Confidential work — source code, unpublished work, anything under an NDA or client confidence.

Do this instead

• Describe it generically. “A client in retail” instead of the client’s name.
• Use placeholders. Swap real values for [NAME], [$AMOUNT], [ADDRESS] — the AI works fine with the shape of the problem.
• Redact before you paste. Delete the sensitive lines from the document first.
• Ask first. If the information is someone else’s, you need their OK.

Turn off training (two minutes, once)

In your AI tool’s settings, find Data Controls (sometimes “improve the model for everyone”) and turn it off. That stops your future chats from being used to train the model.

The exact wording and menu location change often — if you don’t see it, search the tool’s help for “data controls” or “training.” Work/enterprise accounts usually don’t train on your data by default; personal accounts often do. Check yours.

The mental model

The AI is a brilliant assistant you just met, working in an office with thin walls. Give it everything it needs to do the job — and nothing you’d regret a stranger overhearing.

Safety note

This isn’t a reason to avoid AI. It’s how you use it with confidence: hand it the shape of your problem, not the secrets inside it.

Next

Now that you know what’s safe to share, write a brief that works with The Prompt Anatomy.