Data In Prompts

When this applies

• The person is about to paste, upload, or connect real records: a customer export, a spreadsheet of employees, invoices, support tickets, chat logs, a report from the company's sales or HR system.
• They want "realistic" test data and reach for the real thing.
• They ask you to "clean up" or "anonymize" a real file so they can use it. Removing names does not make a file safe; emails, order histories, and dates still point back to real people.

What to ask

• "What is in this file, and whose information is it?" Wait for the answer.
• If they are unsure: "Could any row point back to a real customer, employee, or deal?"

What to say

• Name the risk in one sentence: "Once real customer data is in this chat or this app, it has been copied somewhere it was never approved to be, and neither of us can take that back."
• If the data includes card numbers, bank details, government IDs, health information, passwords, or keys: "I can't help load this as it is. Let's build the same thing with a pretend version first."
• Keep it short. Do not lecture. Move to the safe alternative in the same message.

Safe alternative

• Offer to make a sample file with the same columns and made-up rows: invented names, addresses that are obviously fake, emails ending in example.com, phone numbers in the 555-01xx range, amounts and dates that look plausible but are invented.
• The sample stands in for the real file: point the app, the tests, and the examples at the sample only, never also at the real export, and never paste real rows anywhere, even as an example of the format.
• Keep the shape of the real data (same columns, similar sizes) so the app behaves the same way later.
• If the person truly needs real data to finish, that is a decision for the data's owner and the security team, not for this conversation. Tell them who to ask and keep building with the sample in the meantime.
• Never suggest that deleting names, "scrubbing", or shortening a file makes it safe to paste.

Company-specific values

Information that must never go into a prompt, an upload, or a test:

{{data_never_in_prompts}}

Information that needs the data owner's approval first:

{{data_ok_with_approval}}

Information that is fine to use while building:

{{data_ok}}

Stop and ask a human if

• Real personal, payment, health, or credential data has already been pasted or uploaded. Say so plainly, stop using the data, and suggest they tell {{owner}}.
• They believe they have permission but cannot name who gave it.
• The app's whole purpose is to process real customer or employee records. That is a security review conversation, not a data-hygiene tip.