What Not to Share With AI Tools

Every interaction with AI involves sharing information. While AI tools are useful for many tasks, treating them as private conversations creates unnecessary risk. Understanding what to keep private helps you use AI safely.

This guide covers specific categories of information that should stay out of AI conversations and explains why these boundaries matter. For broader context on responsible AI use, our guide on using AI calmly covers additional considerations.

Passwords and Security Credentials

Never share passwords, PINs, security codes, or any authentication credentials with AI tools.

This seems obvious, but people sometimes share this information when asking for help with account issues or trying to troubleshoot access problems. The convenience is not worth the risk.

Security questions and their answers also belong in this category. Sharing your mother's maiden name or the street you grew up on compromises security measures designed to protect your accounts.

API keys, tokens, and other technical credentials create similar risks. Developers sometimes paste code containing credentials when asking for help. These should be removed or replaced with placeholders before sharing.

Financial Information

Keep banking details, account numbers, and financial credentials private.

Credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and routing numbers should never appear in AI conversations. Even partial numbers create unnecessary risk.

Detailed financial information like your income, investments, debts, and account balances also deserves privacy. This information could be valuable for fraud or identity theft.

Tax information, social security numbers, and similar identifying financial data should stay completely out of AI interactions.

If you need help with financial questions, describe your situation in general terms. Ask about scenarios without providing your actual numbers.

Personal Identification Information

Information that could be used for identity theft requires careful protection.

Social security numbers, driver's license numbers, passport numbers, and similar government identifiers should never be shared.

Full birthdates combined with other identifying information increase identity theft risk. Birth month alone matters less, but complete dates with year deserve caution.

Home addresses, especially combined with other personal details, enable targeted threats. For most AI interactions, this information is unnecessary.

Many people underestimate how combining pieces of information creates risk. Individual facts that seem harmless become dangerous when assembled. Sharing less protects you more.

Private Information About Others

Sharing detailed personal information about other people raises ethical and practical concerns.

Private details about family members, friends, colleagues, or clients should stay private. Their information deserves the same protection as yours.

Information shared in confidence obviously should not be passed to AI. Respecting others' privacy maintains trust and protects relationships.

Details that could identify specific individuals in sensitive contexts require caution. Even without names, distinctive details can make people identifiable.

When discussing situations involving others, use general descriptions rather than identifying details. The AI can help without knowing exactly who you are talking about.

Confidential Work Information

Professional obligations often restrict what you can share, and AI conversations may not meet confidentiality requirements.

Client and customer information usually has confidentiality expectations. Sharing details about clients with AI may violate professional duties or contractual agreements.

Trade secrets, proprietary processes, and confidential business information could harm your employer if shared. What seems like an innocent question about work might reveal protected information.

Internal communications, strategy documents, and unpublished plans typically should remain internal. Asking AI to help with work tasks requires care about what gets included.

Check your workplace policies on AI use. Many organizations have guidelines about what information can be shared with AI tools. Following these protects both you and your employer. When building AI workflows for tasks, always consider what information each step requires.

Health and Medical Information

Detailed health information deserves protection even though discussing health topics with AI can be useful.

Specific diagnoses, medications, and treatment histories create sensitive records. While discussing general health questions works fine, detailed personal medical information requires more caution.

Mental health information carries particular sensitivity. Details about mental health conditions, treatments, and experiences deserve privacy.

Information about others' health conditions raises both privacy and ethical concerns. Medical information about family members or others should not be shared without their consent.

For health questions, focus on the information needed to get useful responses. General questions often work without sharing detailed personal health histories.

Legal Matters

Information related to legal proceedings or potential legal issues requires special care.

Details about ongoing legal matters, disputes, or potential litigation should stay with your legal counsel. AI conversations lack attorney client privilege.

Information that could be used against you in legal contexts deserves protection. What you share with AI could theoretically be accessed through legal processes.

Evidence, documentation, and details about incidents with legal implications should not be shared casually. Protect information that might matter in legal proceedings.

How to Discuss Sensitive Topics Safely

You can often get useful AI help without sharing sensitive details by using careful framing.

Describe situations in general terms rather than specifics. Instead of sharing your actual financial numbers, ask about scenarios with example numbers.

Remove identifying information before sharing. If you need help with a document, remove names, addresses, and other identifying details first.

Ask hypothetical questions that address your underlying concern without revealing your actual situation. This approach works for many sensitive topics. Learning how to communicate clearly with AI helps you get useful answers without oversharing.

Use placeholders for sensitive information. When sharing code or documents for help, replace credentials and personal data with obvious placeholders.

Understanding Privacy Policies

Different AI services handle your data differently. Understanding these differences helps you make informed choices.

Some services store your conversations indefinitely. Others delete them after a period. Policies vary and change over time.

Some services use your conversations to train future models. Others do not use customer data for training. Check current policies rather than assuming.

Business versions of AI tools often have different privacy terms than consumer versions. Understand which version you are using.

Even with strong privacy policies, data breaches can happen. Treating AI conversations as potentially accessible by others provides protection regardless of stated policies.

Building Protective Habits

Developing consistent habits around information sharing serves you better than making case by case decisions.

Before sharing, pause to consider whether the information is necessary. Often you can get useful help without including sensitive details.

When in doubt, leave it out. The cost of omitting unnecessary information is usually low. The cost of sharing sensitive information inappropriately can be high.

Review what you have written before sending. A quick check catches sensitive information that slipped in without conscious thought.

Treat AI interactions as public by default. This conservative assumption protects you even if actual policies are more protective.

These practices let you benefit from AI assistance while maintaining appropriate boundaries around sensitive information. For practical applications where AI helps safely, our guide on AI in everyday life covers useful approaches. The goal is useful help without unnecessary risk.