## Keeping Your Secrets Safe from ChatGPT: Five Things to Avoid Sharing

ChatGPT and similar large language models (LLMs) are powerful tools, capable of generating creative text formats, translating languages, and answering your questions in an informative way. Their capabilities are rapidly expanding, making them invaluable for various tasks. However, this power comes with a responsibility – understanding what information should *never* be fed into these AI systems. Sharing certain data can have serious consequences, ranging from privacy violations to contributing to the spread of misinformation. Let’s explore five categories of information you should resolutely avoid sharing with ChatGPT.

First and foremost, **keep your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) confidential.** This includes your full name, address, phone number, social security number, driver’s license number, bank account details, and any other information that could uniquely identify you. Sharing this with an LLM, no matter how innocuous it may seem, exposes you to significant risks. Data breaches are a real possibility, and even if the LLM’s developers claim robust security measures, there’s always an inherent risk. Your private information could be misused for identity theft, financial fraud, or other malicious activities. Even seemingly harmless details, when combined, can create a complete picture of your life, leaving you vulnerable.

Secondly, **avoid sharing sensitive medical information**. Describing symptoms, diagnoses, or treatment plans opens the door to privacy breaches and potential misuse of your health data. This is particularly important given the increasingly sophisticated capabilities of LLMs to analyze and understand complex medical information. Sharing details about your health with an AI model could lead to unauthorized access to your medical records, inaccurate diagnoses based on incomplete information, or even discriminatory practices.

Third, **never divulge confidential business information.** This encompasses trade secrets, intellectual property, financial data, strategic plans, and any information that could give competitors an unfair advantage. Using LLMs for brainstorming or generating text is tempting, but the risk of your confidential information becoming public outweighs any potential benefit. Remember, the data you feed into these systems becomes part of their training data, which means your business secrets could inadvertently be shared with others or used in unintended ways.

Fourth, **resist the urge to share personally identifying information about others.** Even if you have permission, sharing someone else’s PII, health information, or other sensitive data with an LLM is ethically questionable and potentially illegal. You are responsible for protecting the privacy of others, and using an AI model to process their data without their explicit consent puts them at risk. Consider the potential ramifications – a seemingly innocuous detail could contribute to a larger data breach or cause significant harm.

Finally, **be cautious about sharing anything that could be construed as illegal or harmful.** This includes details about criminal activities, plans to commit illegal acts, or anything that could incite violence or hatred. Even hypothetically describing such activities could have unintended consequences. LLMs are constantly learning, and the information you provide contributes to their knowledge base. Providing information that is illegal or harmful could potentially be used to train the model in a way that facilitates such activities. Furthermore, your actions could have legal repercussions.

In conclusion, while LLMs offer incredible potential, it’s crucial to be mindful of the information you share. By avoiding these five categories of sensitive data, you can significantly reduce your risk of privacy violations, data breaches, and other negative consequences. Remember, responsible use of AI technology requires a keen understanding of the potential risks involved. Treat your data with the utmost care and always prioritize your privacy and security.