Day 4: What never goes in the box

The one idea

One paste can undo a career of discretion. Before this week goes further, the safety rules — there are only four, and they fit on a sticky note:

1. Credentials never. Passwords, OTPs, banking details — no chat, no exception.
2. Other people's identity data never. ID numbers, salaries, medical details, client account numbers. Their privacy is not yours to spend (in South Africa, POPIA makes this a legal duty, not just manners).
3. Company secrets need a company tool. Contracts, strategy, unreleased numbers belong in an employer-approved AI (work Copilot, enterprise workspace) — not your personal account.
4. When unsure, strip it. Most tasks work with names and numbers replaced: "[client]" and "[amount]" summarise just as well.

Compare:

Sunday night, personal account: pastes the client contract "just to summarise it".

versus

Same task, Monday, in the company-approved tool — or with the client name and figures stripped first.

The question worth asking out loud

If your workplace has no stated rule, asking "which AI tools are we allowed to use for work content?" does not make you look behind — it makes you look like the careful one. Get the answer in writing.

Try it now

Write your own sticky note now: the four rules in your words, plus one line naming which tool you may use for work content (or the question you will ask tomorrow to find out).

Your win today

You can use AI daily without ever being the person who pasted the wrong thing. The four rules are on your desk.