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Freedom251 › Blog › AI Privacy

How to reduce the privacy risks of using AI tools

By Freedom251 Team · · 11 min read

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You can use AI tools more safely by sending the minimum information needed, removing identifying details, checking the service’s training and retention controls, limiting connected-app permissions, and using an organization-approved workspace for work data. These steps reduce exposure; they do not make a prompt anonymous or guarantee immediate deletion.

What privacy risks are you managing?

An AI request can create several separate privacy paths. The text you type, files you upload, conversation history, personalization or memory features, connected applications, and administrator or provider access may all have different rules. A privacy setting that addresses one path may leave the others unchanged.

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Information in the prompt or upload

Anything included to provide context can become part of the service’s processing record. A full customer email, medical note, spreadsheet, support ticket, or contract often contains names, contact details, account numbers, dates of birth, addresses, unique case facts, or confidential business information that the task does not actually require.

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Retention, history, and memory

A conversation can remain visible in chat history even when a model-improvement setting is disabled. Some services also store personalisation or memory information separately from the visible transcript. Deleting a conversation, turning off history, and disabling model improvement are different actions with different effects.

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Model improvement and secondary use

Providers may describe whether prompts and files can be used to improve models. The answer depends on the service, account type, workspace configuration, and the setting in force when the conversation occurs. Never treat one provider’s control as an industry-wide rule.

Additional recipients

An upload, connected app, custom action, plugin, or agent can create another access path. The external recipient may apply its own privacy policy and retention period. An agent that can search a drive, mailbox, calendar, or database can expose more information than the original prompt appears to contain.

Workplace and legal exposure

For organizational data, the important questions include who administers the account, which contract applies, whether existing permissions and sensitivity labels are enforced, how retention and legal holds work, and whether activity is audited. A personal account usually cannot provide the same governance as an approved enterprise workflow.

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Start with data minimization

The safest sensitive detail is the detail the tool never receives. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) describes data minimization as limiting personal data to what is needed for the stated purpose; keeping information merely because it might be useful later is not enough by itself.

Ask three questions before pasting

  1. What is the exact task? Define the output you need, such as a summary, a classification, a draft, or a calculation.
  2. What is the minimum context? Include only the facts that change the answer. Remove background that does not affect the requested result.
  3. Can the example be fictionalized? A short excerpt, synthetic record, or invented example is often sufficient to test wording, formulas, or a workflow.

Replace direct identifiers

Remove names, email addresses, phone numbers, postal addresses, account and policy numbers, authentication codes, payment details, private keys, and other direct identifiers. Use neutral labels such as Customer A, Project North, or Case 17 when the relationship between records matters.

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Also remove combinations that can identify someone indirectly. A rare job title, exact date, small town, unusual medical condition, and distinctive event may identify a person even after the name is deleted. Generalize dates to a month or year, use an age range, round financial figures, and omit unique narrative details unless they are essential to the answer.

Sensitive categories that normally should not be pasted

Information Safer alternative Why the alternative helps
Passwords, one-time codes, API keys, private keys Describe the error and use a clearly fictional token such as EXAMPLE_KEY The tool can explain a procedure without receiving credentials that enable access.
Payment-card or bank details Use a redacted sample with only the field names and last-four-digit format The structure is preserved while the usable financial data is removed.
Health, disability, or care records Use a synthetic case with broad age and condition categories The tool can help with layout or plain-language drafting without exposing a real patient.
Customer or client files Provide a short, redacted excerpt or a fictional record Only the facts needed for the requested transformation are shared.
Confidential strategy, source code, or unreleased product details Abstract the problem, isolate a minimal code fragment, and remove names and proprietary values The technical question remains answerable without disclosing the whole project.

Pseudonymization is not anonymization

Replacing a name with a code reduces casual exposure, but a separate key, unusual facts, or other records may still identify the person. The ICO treats pseudonymized information as personal data under data-protection law. Keep the re-identification key outside the AI tool, restrict access to it, and do not assume that a label makes the data anonymous.

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Check the service’s controls before using it

Read the current settings and terms for the exact product and account you are using. Features can differ between consumer accounts, paid plans, managed workspaces, mobile apps, and integrations.

ChatGPT model-improvement setting

In ChatGPT, the current Data Controls documentation describes a setting labeled Improve the model for everyone. Turning it off stops new conversations from being used to train OpenAI models, but saved chats can remain in your history. The switch therefore addresses model improvement, not every form of storage or access.

Check the setting through the account’s settings area and confirm that it is applied to the account or workspace in which you are working. An administrator may control settings in a managed workspace, and a setting in one account does not automatically change another account or a connected application.

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ChatGPT Temporary Chat

OpenAI describes Temporary Chat as a distinct mode. While a conversation is temporary, it does not appear in chat history, does not create or update memories, and is not used to improve models. OpenAI also says it may retain a copy for up to 30 days for safety purposes. That provider-specific period is not a general rule for AI services.

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If you save a temporary conversation, it becomes a regular chat. Before using Temporary Chat, check whether personalization, connected tools, or actions are enabled and whether the conversation can be saved. Temporary mode limits history and certain uses; it is not proof that the content is never processed or immediately erased.

Actions and external recipients

A custom GPT action or other connected service can send relevant prompt or file data to a third party. That recipient’s privacy policy and retention terms apply to the data it receives. Do not enable an action merely because it might be useful later; enable it for a defined task and verify exactly what it can access.

Personal account or organization-managed workspace?

The right choice depends on the data, not only on the model’s capabilities. The following comparison describes the questions to verify rather than ranking every service.

Privacy question Personal consumer account Organization-managed workspace
Can content improve models? Controlled by the provider’s consumer settings and the account’s current opt-out or opt-in state. May be governed by an organizational contract and administrator policy; verify the exact offer.
Who controls settings? The individual account holder, subject to provider defaults and eligibility. Administrators can set or enforce workspace controls, but the available controls depend on the subscription.
How are prompts, files, and history retained? Read the provider’s current retention and deletion terms; history may remain even when training is disabled. Check the organization’s retention schedule, legal holds, backups, and workspace configuration.
Administrator access and audit Usually limited to the provider’s account and safety processes. May include identity-based access, audit logs, compliance controls, and administrator visibility.
Connected-app permissions The user may grant access directly, sometimes without organizational review. Administrators can restrict apps and apply existing identity and data-access policies when the product supports them.
Governing terms Consumer terms and privacy documentation apply. A negotiated or published business contract, such as a data-protection addendum and product terms, may apply.

What Microsoft documents for organizational Copilot

Microsoft describes Enterprise Data Protection for specified organizational Copilot and Copilot Chat offerings under its Data Protection Addendum and Product Terms. For those described offers, Microsoft says organizational access controls and policies can apply, including identity permissions, sensitivity labels, retention policies, auditing, and administrator settings. It also says prompts, responses, and Microsoft Graph data are not used to train foundation models under the described offering.

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Those statements are conditional on the specified subscription and administrative setup. They should not be generalized to every consumer service, every Copilot-branded product, or every AI tool. Ask the privacy or security owner to confirm the exact product name, license, tenant configuration, retention policy, and audit behavior before uploading organizational information.

Control connected apps, uploads, and agents

Use least privilege

Grant only the permissions required for the current task. If an assistant needs one document, provide that document rather than an entire drive. If it needs a date, provide the date rather than mailbox access. Avoid attaching broad folders, mailboxes, calendars, or databases “just in case.”

Review the recipient and the data flow

  • Identify every service that receives the prompt, file, or result.
  • Check whether the connected service stores inputs, uses them for its own improvement, or shares them with subcontractors.
  • Confirm whether access is one-time, recurring, read-only, or able to create or change records.
  • Remove the connection when the task is complete if ongoing access is unnecessary.

Agents need explicit justification

ICO guidance on agentic AI recommends justifying access to personal information by the system’s purpose. Permission prompts and system-level permissions can be safeguards, but a prompt is useful only when the user can understand what will be accessed and why. Treat an agent as a separate data processor or recipient, not as a harmless extension of the chat window.

Inspect uploads before sending

Check spreadsheets for hidden sheets, comments, revision history, embedded images, metadata, and formulas that reveal more than the visible cells. In documents, remove tracked changes and comments. Redact locally, verify that text cannot be copied from the redaction layer, and upload only the pages or rows needed for the task.

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A workplace approval process for sensitive information

Do not decide solely from a model’s public reputation. Use the organization’s approved-tool process and involve the privacy, security, procurement, or records owner when data is sensitive.

Verify the exact product and account

  1. Record the product name, edition, tenant or workspace, and user account.
  2. Read the applicable terms and data-protection addendum, not a general marketing page for a different edition.
  3. Confirm whether prompts, responses, uploaded files, and retrieval data can be used for model improvement.
  4. Document retention, deletion, backup, legal-hold, and export behavior.
  5. Check administrator access, audit logging, identity permissions, sensitivity labels, and data-loss-prevention rules.
  6. Review connected apps, actions, plugins, and agents and approve only the permissions needed.
  7. Define who may use the tool, for which data classes, and how incidents are reported.

Respect information about other people

If a prompt contains another person’s information, consider whether you have authority to share it and whether the person must be informed. In relevant UK GDPR contexts, ICO transparency guidance says people should be told about purposes, retention periods, and who data is shared with. This is regulatory guidance for the United Kingdom, not a substitute for jurisdiction-specific legal advice.

A practical low-exposure workflow

Use this sequence each time you need AI assistance with potentially personal or confidential material.

  1. Classify the data. Decide whether it is public, internal, confidential, personal, regulated, or a credential. Stop if the category is prohibited by policy.
  2. Define the output. Write the smallest question that produces the required answer.
  3. Extract and minimize. Copy only the relevant paragraph, rows, or code fragment. Remove direct identifiers and unique combinations.
  4. Substitute safely. Replace names with neutral labels, dates with ranges where exact dates are unnecessary, and real secrets with placeholders inside <code> formatting.
  5. Check the account. Confirm the model-improvement setting, history and memory behavior, workspace, and any temporary mode.
  6. Check recipients. Review uploads, connected apps, actions, agents, and requested permissions before sending.
  7. Send the smallest prompt. Do not add the full original record merely because the tool can accept it.
  8. Review the output locally. Remove personal details from the final document if the model repeated them, and verify facts before sharing.
  9. Clean up according to policy. Delete chats or files when appropriate, disconnect unused integrations, and record any required retention or audit information. Deletion may not override provider safety retention, organizational legal holds, or backups.

Common mistakes and how to recover

Situation What it means Next action
You disabled model improvement but still see old chats. The setting concerns use for model improvement; it does not necessarily remove saved history. Review and delete the relevant conversations under the service’s history controls, then check the retention statement for that account.
You used Temporary Chat and then saved it. OpenAI says a saved temporary conversation becomes a regular chat. Delete the saved conversation if policy allows, and do not assume the temporary retention treatment still applies.
An action requests access to an entire drive. The permission is broader than a single task requires. Cancel, narrow the permission or provide an isolated file, and obtain administrator approval if it is a work account.
You pasted a password, key, or authentication code. The secret may now be exposed to the service and anyone with access to the conversation. Revoke or rotate the credential immediately, notify the security owner, and follow the organization’s incident process.
You uploaded a client file without approval. The disclosure may breach policy, contract, or data-protection obligations. Stop further sharing, preserve the relevant details for incident reporting, contact the privacy or security owner, and follow the provider and organizational deletion procedures.
A model repeats identifying details in its answer. Output filtering does not undo the original disclosure. Remove the details before forwarding the answer and revise the workflow to use a redacted input.

How to choose the right protection for the task

Low-risk drafting or brainstorming

Use public facts, fictional examples, and no identifying information. A personal account may be adequate when the prompt contains nothing confidential, but still check the service’s current controls if the conversation could be retained.

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Internal operational information

Use an organization-managed workspace only if it is approved for that information class. Confirm administrator controls, retention, audit, and connected-app restrictions before uploading internal documents.

Personal information about customers, patients, employees, or children

Prefer a synthetic or heavily minimized example. If the real data is necessary, obtain explicit organizational approval, establish the lawful and contractual basis, limit access, and document retention and sharing.

Credentials, regulated records, or highly confidential material

Do not place the information into a general AI tool. Use a specifically approved workflow with documented controls, or complete the task without exposing the data to an external model.

What these safeguards cannot promise

No single toggle proves that a service never processes your content, and no temporary mode guarantees zero retention. Provider documentation is authoritative for the provider’s stated behavior but is not an independent audit. Features, interface labels, eligibility, retention periods, and legal requirements can change, so verify the live documentation and your organization’s policy before relying on a setting.

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The practical objective is risk reduction: disclose less, restrict access, choose the right account, and keep a record of why the tool was allowed to process the information. That approach remains useful even when a provider changes a control or introduces a new integration.

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