Privacy
What to keep out of your chats, and simple habits to stay safe.
Whatever you type or upload into an AI tool leaves your device and is stored by that company. Depending on your settings, it may be kept for a while or used to improve their models. Treat a chat like an email to a company: useful, but not the place for passwords or anything you'd hate to see leaked.
How it works
- 01Your messages and files are sent to the AI company's servers to be processed.
- 02They're stored in your chat history and, depending on your settings, may be used to train future models.
- 03You control a lot of this: what you share, your privacy settings, and deleting chats you don't need.
The playground bench rule
Think of the AI as a very helpful stranger on the playground bench. You'd happily ask for advice on sleep schedules or a birthday cake. You wouldn't hand over your bank card, your child's passport or your password. Share the situation, not the sensitive details: "my 3-year-old" instead of their full name and birthday.
Where you'll use it
Kids' details
Use "my toddler" or a first name instead of full names, birthdays and school names.
Client information
Remove client names and contact details before pasting in an email to get help.
Photos of documents
Cover ID numbers, account numbers and addresses before uploading a letter.
Your nap-time experiment
Do a 5-minute privacy check of the AI app you use most.
I want to protect my family's privacy while using AI chat apps. Walk me through, step by step: 1. Where to find the privacy or data settings in a typical AI app 2. How to check whether my chats are used to train the AI, and how to turn that off if I want to 3. How to delete old chats 4. A short list of things I should never paste into an AI chat Keep it simple and practical.