Data Retention

Clean Up Your Digital Files Before Using AI: A Privacy Guide for Everyday Users Over the past year, AI tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini have become part of daily life for many people. They help with writing, brainstorming, and even organizing schedules. But there’s a catch that often gets overlooked: these tools can ingest whatever you feed them, including old emails, personal documents, and chat logs that you no longer need. A recent article from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) highlights why records retention—deciding what to keep and what to delete—is a critical first step before adopting AI. The same logic applies to individuals, not just organizations. If you’re planning to use AI more seriously for work or personal tasks, now is a good time to clean house. ...

What Records Should You Keep Before Using AI? A Privacy Guide If you’ve used a chatbot to draft an email, an AI assistant to summarize a document, or a generative tool to generate an image, you’ve left a data trail. Every prompt you type, every output you save, and every setting you adjust can be stored by the service—and sometimes used for training or shared with third parties. Most people are not aware of how much of their personal information accumulates inside these tools, or what they can do to manage it. ...