Direct sources. Clear status. Practical public information.
Reviewed November 13, 2026 · defensive AI data handling.
Authorization boundary: use this only for data, accounts, applications, devices, and systems you own or are explicitly authorized to handle. Do not place secrets, credentials, private logs, student records, health records, financial details, legal documents, or confidential business data into a public AI service merely because the prompt is convenient.
OWASP’s LLM02:2025 guidance identifies sensitive-information disclosure as a risk and calls for clear policies on data retention, use, and deletion. A model or service policy is an evidence source—not a guarantee that a particular dataset is safe to submit.
Four-control preflight
| Control | Question to verify | Stop condition |
|---|---|---|
| Retention | What input, output, file, metadata, and log data is stored, where, and for how long? | Retention is unknown or exceeds the owner’s approved need. |
| Sharing | Which subprocessors, integrations, reviewers, workspaces, or other users may receive it? | Recipients or access boundaries are unclear. |
| Deletion | What can be deleted, by whom, how quickly, and what backups/legal holds remain? | Deletion cannot meet the owner’s requirement. |
| Training/use | May the service use content for model improvement, evaluation, abuse monitoring, or another purpose, and can the owner control that? | The intended use is incompatible with the data owner’s authorization. |
Safe build-first workflow
- Classify the data and confirm the owner/authorization.
- Use synthetic or minimized reproduction when it can solve the problem.
- Remove secrets and direct identifiers before any external tool.
- Capture the current policy/settings evidence and responsible human decision.
- Test with the least-sensitive sample, inspect output/logging, repair gaps, and retest.
- Keep a rollback route and incident-response owner.
This is not proof that a provider retained, shared, trained on, or misused any specific content. Policies, plans, regions, enterprise controls, and legal duties vary. When the four controls cannot be verified, keep the data out and use an approved local or controlled workflow.
Foundation and source
Public-information notice: This Pulse is a dated, source-linked research summary for general educational use. It reports what the cited sources state or what the identified public record shows as of the date reviewed. Citation does not mean endorsement, partnership, certification, or independent confirmation of every third-party assertion. This is not individualized legal, medical, tax, accounting, investment, insurance, cybersecurity, licensing, regulatory, procurement, employment, real-estate, or other professional advice. Rules, facts, availability, and eligibility can change. Verify the controlling source, jurisdiction, effective date, and your own facts, and consult the responsible agency or a qualified professional before a consequential decision. External links are provided for attribution and may change. Use this information and any reader-controlled checklist at your own discretion and risk.