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9 min · safety

Simple habits to hide personal data (PII)

Goal: Redact email, phone, and address before paste—and stop the model from “helpfully” asking for the original.

Best for: Support mail, resumes, screenshots, meeting notes with names, student work.

PII means Personally Identifiable Information—data that can identify a person alone or in combination (name + phone, email, address, national ID, precise location, account numbers). You rarely need the real value for the model to help with wording or structure.

Why beginners skip this

Paste-then-redact feels tidy—names and phones already left. Scan before paste; rewrite on hit.

Step 1 — 30-second redaction pass

Before paste, spend 30 seconds scrubbing name, phone, email, ID, address—prefer PersonA / <EMAIL>.

Before paste, replace:
- people names → PersonA / PersonB
- emails / phones → <EMAIL> / <PHONE>
- addresses → [address redacted]
- ID / card / account numbers → <ID> / <ACCT last4 only if needed>
- exact school/employee IDs → placeholders
Keep the question intact. Then ask.

Step 2 — Support ticket example

Example

Filled prompt

Email I almost pasted has phone + HKID-like pattern.
Hand-redact to placeholders. Model works on redacted only. Confirm no raw PII in chat.

What good output looks like

  • Reply stays calm and uses only PersonA / <ORDER_ID> / [address redacted]
  • No real email, phone, or street appears in the draft
  • Model does not ask you to paste the raw address “to be helpful”
  • Warehouse-delay fact and template tracking link preserved
  • You could paste the reply without a second scrub pass

Step 3 — Screenshots need a pass too

Blur or crop names, QR codes, badge photos, and notification previews before upload; if raw PII already landed, stop and use the provider’s data controls.

Example

Filled prompt

Redact this support ticket before I paste it into chat. Replace names, emails, phones, and the street address with placeholders. Keep the question and order facts. Do not invent a refund decision.
Ticket: Mei Chen (mei.chen@example.com / +852-5555-0199) asked about order ORD-8821 delayed to 12 Peel St warehouse. Facts I know: 3-day warehouse delay; offer our standard tracking template; refund not decided.

What good output looks like

  • Returns a redacted ticket body with <EMAIL> / <PHONE> placeholders
  • Lists three checks: search @, +digits, and street words before send
  • Refuses to reconstruct the original phone from context
  • Keeps the support question intact so wording help still works
  • Flags any leftover ID-like digit runs you missed

Placeholders > hope

Replace names/phones/IDs before paste. Hope is not a redaction strategy.

Scan before paste

Search the draft for @, +86, ID-like digits, and street addresses. Replace with [NAME]/[PHONE]/[ADDR] before the chat box sees them.

Combinations identify people

A first name alone may be fine. First name + school + phone is not. When in doubt, replace the whole cluster. Screenshots need the same pass—blur badges, QR codes, and notification previews before upload.

Example

Filled prompt

Signature has mobile + home address.
Placeholders only; model sees scrubbed. Confirm no raw PII left.
Context: real workstream this week (Asia/Shanghai). Name actual files/people.
Constraints: no invented metrics/owners/prices; label Unknowns; stop before send/delete/pay.
Done check: I can mark pass/fail in one minute on the output.

What good output looks like

  • No raw PII/secrets in the paste for “Recognize common personal data and redact it in un”
  • Placeholders used; scrub checklist visible
  • Disclosure matches how much AI actually did
  • Pass/fail: desk card updated today

Red flag

Real names/emails leaving the machine; redact-after-send—PersonA / <EMAIL> first.

Save this card

Card: Redact first—PersonA / <EMAIL> always beats real identity. Keep this beside the tool; read before you start.

Wear-test: show your Save card to a teammate for thirty seconds—if they cannot restate the refuse line, tighten the card tonight and date it (Asia/Shanghai).

Before you start

Put the scrub checklist on your desk. For “Recognize common personal data and redact it in,” choose placeholders before the paste window opens. Guide: safety-pii-redaction-habits. Keep the real job visible the whole time; a blank box means stop and fetch the artifact first.

How to use this week

This week run a PII scan on a real text: name / phone / address / ID; rewrite or redact before paste on hit.

Close the week by quoting aloud the refuse line you actually used once. If you cannot, rerun Practice now and date the pass/fail (Asia/Shanghai).

Pitfalls

PitfallFix
“It’s just an internal name”Still redact third-party customers
Leaving last name + school + phoneCombinations identify
Uploading full resume to “improve”Redact contact block first
Assuming chat is private foreverTreat as shareable by default
Example

Filled prompt

Temptation: skip the habit for safety-pii-redaction-habits to save five minutes.
Job still: Recognize common personal data and redact
Smallest correct pass: Done visible · checkable artifact · Unknowns [?].
Boundaries: draft only; no silent send; no invented metrics.
Return: artifact + refuse-line said aloud.

What good output looks like

  • Names the shortcut refused (specific to safety-pii-redaction-habits)
  • Still delivers checkable output for “Recognize common personal data and redact”
  • Unknowns labeled; draft-only
  • Pass/fail: refuse-line dated (safety-pii-redaction-habits #4)

Practice now

Second pair: have a buddy spot one missed PII field (Asia/Shanghai).

PII drill: redact one real paste (names/IDs); keep a before/after scrap privately (Asia/Shanghai).

Thin-spot drill: rewrite the Save card with real nouns from your work (repo, doc, inbox). Generic placeholders fail the drill.

Tonight run the redaction list on real text about to paste; rewrite any personal identifier before it enters chat.

Close the loop

Write one line: next time I paste then redact, I refuse paste.

One sentence takeaway

Scan before paste; rewrite or redact on hit.

Next

Secrets and pasting · Agent blast radius · Accounts and safety

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