Think Before You Type: What You Should Never Share With ChatGPT

Updated: December 10, 2025 17:48

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AI chatbots are powerful assistants, but anything you type can be stored, analysed, and in some cases used to improve models. Experts warn users to avoid sharing personally identifiable information, financial data, company secrets, legal or medical records, and anything they wouldn’t want made public, to reduce privacy, security and identity-theft risks.

Why it matters

AI chats feel private, but they are not the same as talking to a doctor, lawyer, or bank representative bound by strict confidentiality rules. Conversations may be logged, used for training, or exposed in a breach or bug, which makes over-sharing a real risk.

Key things you should never share

Personal identifiable information (PII)

Full name, address, phone, email, date of birth, ID/passport numbers, social security or Aadhaar-like IDs, and other details that uniquely identify you or someone else.

Financial and payment data

Bank account numbers, card details, CVV, PINs, tax IDs, investment account numbers, loan or EMI credentials, or screenshots of financial statements that could enable fraud or account takeover.

Passwords, login or authentication details

Usernames plus passwords, one-time passwords (OTPs), recovery codes, security questions/answers, or any hints you also use on real accounts.

Sensitive company or client information

Internal documents, source code, customer lists, trade secrets, unreleased product plans, confidential contracts, or legal strategies – these can violate NDAs and could resurface or leak via future model use or breaches.

Highly sensitive personal content

Health records, lab reports, diagnoses tied to your identity, legal case details, intimate photos, IDs, or “confessions” you wouldn’t want to see outside a therapist’s room or lawyer’s office.

Anything you wouldn’t post publicly

A simple rule from security experts: if you’d hesitate to put it on a public forum, don’t paste it into an AI chat. Treat every AI interaction as if it might one day be visible beyond your screen.

Safer ways to use ChatGPT

Use hypothetical or anonymised data when asking for help with finances, legal wording, work emails or personal issues.
Strip out names, account numbers, company identifiers and specific addresses before sharing a prompt.
Check the platform’s privacy and data-use settings and opt out of training where possible if you are handling anything even mildly sensitive.

Sources: Tech.co, Wald.ai, AgileBlue, Telefónica Tech, Times of India Tech, Mashable, Forbes.

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