Sheet 1

What not to paste into an AI tool

AI Tools Field Guide

Not affiliated with OpenAI, Google, xAI or Anthropic; your organization’s rules come first.

Public tools take public material. A work account may take more, within its rules. Secrets and other people’s data go in neither.

Three tiers, three rules

  • Public tools. The free or personal ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok or Claude take public material only. Never put personal data, internal details, or anything not shareable into a public tool.
  • A work or enterprise account. Your organization’s approved tier can take more, within its own rules and data-use agreement.
  • Never, anywhere. Secrets, credentials, and other people’s private information stay out of any AI tool.

Why a work account is different

  • Contracted and logged. An enterprise agreement sets retention and training terms that differ from the free consumer app.
  • Not used for training. Under most business terms, your organization’s data is not used to train the model, unlike the free tier by default.
  • Not private either. Chats can be visible to administrators and logs. Treat a work-account chat like a work email.

Before you upload

  1. Name the data. Public, internal, personal, or secret? A file often mixes them.
  2. Take the sensitive columns out. Bios for an awards package are fine; a roster with personal identifiers is not.
  3. Apply the share-drive test. If the file would be a problem on your shared drive, it is a problem here too. Sensitive material goes only into an approved account, within your organization’s guidance.
  4. If something slipped: tell your IT or data-security lead. They decide next steps.

Take away

Public tools take public material. A work account may take more, within its rules. Secrets and other people’s data never. When in doubt, ask before you upload.