AI assistants are most useful when you give them real material: emails, reports, spreadsheets, code. That raises a fair question. Where does that information go, and what should you never paste in? Here’s a practical way to think about it.

What can happen to what you type

Policies differ between providers and between plans, but these are the questions that matter:

• Storage: are your conversations saved, and for how long?
• Training: can your content be used to improve the provider’s models, and can you opt out?
• Human review: can staff read conversations, for example for safety checks?
• Sharing: are shared chat links public to anyone who has them?

You’ll find the answers in the provider’s privacy policy and settings. Business and enterprise plans often come with stricter terms than free personal accounts, which is one reason many companies require them.

Information to keep out

Unless your organization has approved a tool for it, don’t paste:

• Passwords, API keys or access tokens.
• Customers’ or employees’ personal details, such as ID numbers, addresses, health or financial information.
• Confidential contracts, unreleased financial results or trade secrets.
• Anything covered by a non-disclosure agreement.

Six habits that reduce risk

1. Check your company’s AI policy first. Many organizations list approved tools and banned data types.
2. Review your settings. Look for options to turn off training on your data or to limit chat history.
3. Anonymize before pasting. Replace names, emails and numbers with placeholders like [CLIENT] or [AMOUNT]. The AI rarely needs the real values to help.
4. Share only the relevant part. Paste the paragraph you need help with, not the whole document.
5. Be careful with shared links and plugins. Know who can open a shared chat and what third-party add-ons can access.
6. Delete what you don’t need. Clear old conversations that contain sensitive material if your tool allows it.

An example of anonymizing

Instead of pasting a real complaint with a customer’s name and order number, try:

A customer, [CUSTOMER], received order [ORDER ID] damaged and is asking for a refund within [X] days. Draft a calm, helpful reply that apologizes, explains the refund process and asks for a photo of the damage.

You get the same quality of draft, and you fill in the real details yourself before sending.

Key takeaways

• Know your provider’s storage and training policies, and your employer’s rules.
• Never paste credentials or other people’s personal data into unapproved tools.
• Placeholders let you get help without exposing real information.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Your obligations depend on where you work and the data you handle.