Hi Reader,

You are about to paste an email into ChatGPT.

Perhaps you want help writing a response, summarizing a long conversation, or deciding what to do next.

It takes only a few seconds.

But before you paste it, pause and ask three questions:

Permission. Sensitivity. Necessity.

Permission: Am I allowed to share this information with an external AI service?

Sensitivity: Does it contain personal, confidential, identifying, financial, medical, or otherwise protected information?

Necessity: What is the minimum information the AI needs to help me?

This simple check can prevent you from sharing more than the task requires.

Permission

Having access to a document does not automatically give you permission to upload it to an external AI service.

Consider who created it, who it concerns, and whether your workplace, client, school, or another organization has rules governing how it may be handled.

When your organization provides an approved AI tool, use that tool and follow the policies attached to it.

If you are uncertain whether something may be shared, stop and check first.

Sensitivity

Look beyond the main subject of the document.

A file may contain information you barely notice because it is not relevant to your immediate task:

• Full names
• Email addresses and phone numbers
• Account or identification numbers
• Financial or medical information
• Customer or employee details
• Confidential business information
• Private conversations
• Hidden comments or tracked changes

Information that seems unimportant to your task may still be important to someone’s privacy.

Necessity

AI often does not need the complete original document.

You may be able to:

• Remove names and contact details.
• Replace real people or companies with neutral labels.
• Delete sections unrelated to the task.
• Share a short excerpt instead of the complete file.
• Describe the situation without uploading anything.
• Create a fictional example with the same structure.

For example, instead of pasting a client’s complete email, you could write:

The AI can help with the communication problem without knowing the client’s identity, company, project, or private circumstances.

Sanitizing a document reduces unnecessary exposure, but it does not replace your organization’s rules. If a document is restricted from being shared with external services, do not upload it—even after removing identifying details.

Share only what the task requires

Before using AI, separate two things:

What the tool needs to help you

and

Everything the original file happens to contain

Those are rarely the same.

Removing unnecessary information does not only protect privacy. It can also give the AI a clearer task by reducing irrelevant detail.

Try This Today

Choose a document you might reasonably use with AI—but do not upload it yet.

Review it using this checklist:

If sharing is permitted, create a separate, sanitized version containing only what is necessary.

AI can help you work with information.

Good judgment determines which information it should receive.

If you would like to explore this subject further, read:

​How to Use ChatGPT Responsibly—Without Fear​

— The Mastering AI Team

Make AI understandable. Make it practical. Make it work for you.