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What is safe to paste

Not sure whether you can paste that contract or email into an AI tool? Asking is the right instinct. Five questions usually settle it in a few minutes.

1. What is the material?

Stop and continue to question 2 if it is any of these:

  • Confidential information of your organization or a client
  • Information you received under an NDA or other duty of confidentiality to someone else
  • Privileged communications or work product
  • Personal data about employees, customers or anyone else
  • Regulated data (health, financial, payment card or similar) or export-controlled material
  • Trade secrets, pricing, deal terms or unannounced plans

If none applies, you can usually go ahead.

2. Which tool, and which plan?

  • Is the tool approved under your organization's AI policy for this kind of material?
  • Are you signed in with a work account on a business or enterprise plan, or a personal account?
  • Does your organization have a signed agreement with the provider, such as business terms or a data processing agreement?

3. What do the provider's current terms say?

Terms differ by plan and change over time, so check them for your own plan and note the date you checked. Look for whether your inputs are used for training and whether you can turn that off, how long conversations and files are kept, whether staff can review conversations, and where the data is stored.

4. Can you reduce what goes in?

  • Replace names, amounts and identifying details with placeholders such as [CUSTOMER] and [AMOUNT].
  • Paste only the clause or section you need help with.
  • Describe the facts in general terms instead of pasting the whole email thread.
  • Remove comments, tracked changes and hidden details from documents before uploading.

5. Privilege and professional duties

Sharing privileged material with a third-party tool can raise waiver questions, and lawyers have duties of confidentiality and competence when using these tools. Follow your organization's policy and read the guidance for your jurisdiction, such as ABA Formal Opinion 512 (2024) and any state bar guidance that applies to you.

In plain terms

Go ahead when the tool and plan are approved and the terms suit the material. Reduce first when only part is sensitive. Stop and ask when the material is privileged, regulated or covered by someone else's confidentiality terms and you cannot reduce it.

Printable version: "Safe to paste?" checklist (PDF).