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in collaboration with Microsoft

The ten principles

Principle 03 · Before you start · Privacy and data protection

Confidentiality of information shared with AI

Information is shared with AI only in approved tools, for an approved purpose and no more than the task needs.

Key question

Is this mine to share, in this tool?

Benefit

AI can be used on real work, because clients and colleagues can trust how their information is handled.

Context

Client files, colleagues’ personal details and company plans were given to you for a purpose, and that purpose still holds when you use AI. What AI changes is how easily information travels: a paste, an upload, a connector that can read a whole mailbox, an assistant that remembers what you told it last week.

The same tool can be right for one task and wrong for another. A work account under your organization’s contract and a personal account can look identical and come with very different terms. In Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trend Index, 78% of people who used AI at work said they brought their own tools.

Checks before sharing information

Four questions take ten seconds:

  • Is this tool approved for this kind of information?
  • Does the task need all of it, or would an extract do?
  • Could invented sample data do the job while you test the prompt?
  • Who else will be able to see it, now and later?

Anonymization and pseudonymization

Removing names rarely makes data anonymous. Age, job title, location and a date can be enough to identify someone, especially in a small team or a small town. The UK’s data protection regulator explains how context and combinations of details identify people, and why replacing names with codes (pseudonymization) still leaves you with personal data. If a task needs real personal data, use a tool and a process cleared for it.

Connectors and assistant memory

When you connect an assistant to your email, calendar or drive, you give it what you can see. Check which folders and mailboxes it can open, and switch off what the task doesn’t need. If your assistant has memory, look at what it has kept, and delete client details that don’t belong there.

Practices

  1. 01Use the tools and accounts your organization has approved for the information in front of you.
  2. 02Share the minimum the task needs. An extract or invented sample often works.
  3. 03Check what your assistant remembers and which folders its connectors can open.
  4. 04Keep one client’s information out of work for another client.
  5. 05Ask before recording or transcribing a meeting, and say where the transcript will live.

Prompt examples

A prompt before and after improvement, and the part a person does outside the prompt.

Data and numbers

Finding upsell patterns

Before

The full client spreadsheet, names and contract values included, pasted into a personal chatbot:

“Find upsell opportunities.”

After

In the work tool your organization approved:

“Here’s an extract by segment: industry, company size, products bought and renewal month. Suggest upsell patterns for each segment.”

Your part

Keep names and contract values out unless the tool and the task are cleared for them.

Why it works: Upsell patterns come from segments, so names and contract values add exposure without improving the analysis.

Contracts and policies

Reviewing a supplier contract

Before

The whole contract uploaded to a free online tool:

“Find the risky clauses.”

After

In the approved tool:

“Compare the liability, termination and data protection clauses of this contract with our standard terms (attached). Show the differences in a table, quoting both texts.”

Your part

Use the tool your organization approved for confidential documents, and send anything that matters to legal. The AI’s reading isn’t legal advice.

Why it works: A focused comparison with your own terms is more useful than a general hunt for risk, and it stays in a protected tool.

Evidence

  • In Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trend Index, 78% of people who used AI at work said they brought their own AI tools. [Microsoft WTI 2024]
  • Microsoft Copilot doesn’t use prompts, responses or organizational data accessed through Microsoft Graph to train its foundation models. The commitment comes with that product and its terms, which is why the tool and the account matter. [Microsoft Learn]
  • Under the GDPR, personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable person. [GDPR]
  • The UK Information Commissioner’s Office explains that effective anonymization depends on context, and that pseudonymized data is still personal data. [UK ICO] [UK ICO]

Case studies and scenarios

Team practice

Agree a data traffic light for your team: what’s green, amber and red, and which tools each color may go into. It’s part of the team charter.

Team toolTeam AI charter

Sources

What each source establishes, and its limits. The practices and recommendations on this page are ours, and the facts come from the sources. See every source we use.

  1. AI at Work Is Here. Now Comes the Hard Part (2024 Work Trend Index) Microsoft and LinkedIn · May 8, 2024 · Survey research (vendor) Of 31,000 people surveyed in 31 markets, 75% of knowledge workers used generative AI at work, and 78% of AI users brought their own AI tools. Limits: Vendor research based on self-reported answers.
  2. Data, privacy, and security for Microsoft Copilot Microsoft · Updated August 18, 2026 · Product documentation States that Copilot only surfaces organizational data the user has at least view permission for; that prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren’t used to train foundation models; and that generated responses aren’t guaranteed to be 100% factual, so users should use their judgment before sending output to others. Limits: Applies to that product and its commercial terms only.
  3. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) European Union, Official Journal · April 27, 2016 · Law Defines personal data broadly (Article 4) and gives people rights around decisions based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects on them (Article 22). Limits: Other countries have their own data protection laws. The European Commission has proposed changes to Article 22, so check whether they have been adopted.
  4. How do we ensure anonymisation is effective? UK Information Commissioner’s Office · Current guidance · Regulator guidance Explains that whether data is anonymous depends on context and on the means reasonably likely to be used to identify people; removing names alone may not be enough. Limits: UK guidance. Other countries’ legal tests differ.
  5. Pseudonymisation UK Information Commissioner’s Office · Current guidance · Regulator guidance Explains that pseudonymization reduces risk but that pseudonymized data remains personal data. Limits: UK guidance.

Cite this page

Founderz (2026). Principle 3: Confidentiality of information shared with AI. The RUAI Standard, 2026 edition. Developed by Founderz in collaboration with Microsoft. https://responsibleai.founderz.com/toolkit/principles/confidentiality

Licensed under CC BY 4.0: share and adapt with attribution.