Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
This is the cardinal rule of using public AI tools. Never upload any information that can be used to identify an individual. This includes names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, government ID numbers, or financial account details. Many employees
make the mistake of pasting customer records or employee details into a chatbot to quickly draft a response or summarize a file. The problem is that many public AI models can store and use this data for future training. Once that data leaves your company's secure environment, you've lost control over it, creating significant privacy violations and regulatory risks.
Confidential Company and Client Data
If you wouldn't post it on a public website, do not put it into a public AI tool. This category is broad and includes anything your company considers a secret or has received from a client under a non-disclosure agreement. Examples include internal audit results, marketing strategies, unpublished financial data, and business plans. Uploading this information can lead to a devastating loss of competitive advantage. Imagine a competitor gaining insight into your product roadmap or pricing structure because an employee used an AI tool to brainstorm marketing copy. Always use company-approved, enterprise-grade AI platforms that have contractual guarantees about data privacy.
Intellectual Property and Proprietary Code
One of the most common but riskiest uses of generative AI is asking it to debug, optimize, or write code. Pasting proprietary source code into a public AI tool is equivalent to handing over your company’s trade secrets. This also applies to other forms of intellectual property, like unpublished product designs, research and development data, and patented formulas. Once this information is uploaded, it could potentially be absorbed into the AI model's training data, effectively making your secrets public property. This not only destroys its value but can also complicate your ability to secure patents or copyrights on AI-assisted work, as purely AI-generated content often isn't eligible for such protections.
Sensitive Legal or HR Documents
AI is not a lawyer, and it should never be the sole party reviewing sensitive legal or human resources documents. Uploading employee performance reviews, internal investigation notes, or draft legal contracts poses immense risks. These documents contain highly sensitive personal data and confidential company information. A data leak could lead to legal action, regulatory fines, and a severe breakdown of trust within the organization. Furthermore, using AI to make decisions in hiring, firing, or performance management can introduce serious bias and create legal liabilities for the employer.
Login Credentials and Security Information
This should be obvious, but it’s a critical reminder: never, ever paste passwords, API keys, access tokens, or network configuration details into an AI chatbot. Whether you're trying to understand a configuration file or generate a script that requires credentials, feeding this information to an AI is like posting your keys on a public forum. Even if the immediate session seems private, you have no guarantee that the information isn't being logged or stored in a way that could be compromised later. A single leak of this nature could grant unauthorized access to your company’s entire digital infrastructure.
