Cost
A paste you should not have sent is not a token bill. It is a separate problem.
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What not to paste
Do not paste text your workplace, or the person it is about, would not want in a third-party chat.
1 What it is
Most chatbots send the text to the provider of that tool. Treat a paste as leaving your machine. That includes passwords, keys, customer records, health details, unpublished numbers, and a colleague's personal information. A workplace may allow one approved tool and forbid the consumer chat. Follow that rule.
Providers differ on what they store and on whether chats are used to train models. Those controls change. Read the current page for the tool you use. This is not legal advice.
Example
Task. Rewrite a request to move a delivery date.
Enough. The customer asked to move a delivery date by a week.
Not needed for that task. The customer's name, address, and account number.
2 Why it matters
Quality
A prompt is clear with a redacted or made-up example. Real names are not what makes the instruction work.
Risk
You may not be allowed to send that text, and you may not be able to delete every copy.
3 How to apply · try today
Before the next paste, remove names, account numbers, and secrets. If the task needs them, use the tool your workplace has approved for that data, or do not use a chatbot.
Common mistake
Pasting a whole mailbox, a whole export, or a whole customer record so the model has context.
Self-check
You want a paragraph rewritten. The draft includes a customer's home address. What do you paste?
Take the next thing you were about to paste. Delete names, account numbers, addresses, and secrets. If the task stops making sense, it needed data that should not go into this chat. Stop, or move it to the approved tool.
OpenAI's data controls and Anthropic's API retention note describe controls for those APIs. A consumer chat can differ from the API. Read the current page for the product you use. The Privacy and data handling card is the builder version: what enters a prompt, what the provider stores, and what should never be sent.
Go further
The Privacy and data handling card is the builder version: what enters a prompt, what is stored, and what should never be sent.
Questions
- Is a consumer chat the same as the API?
- No. Storage and training controls can differ. Read the current page for the product in front of you.
- Can I paste it if I delete the chat afterward?
- Deleting the chat on your side is not the same as the provider having no copy. If the text should not leave your machine, do not paste it.