Lesson Content

Six categories – never share with Grok or any AI tool.

1. Government-issued identification: Social Security Numbers, passport numbers, driver's license numbers, taxpayer IDs. No AI conversation requires these.

2. Financial credentials and account details: Bank account numbers, credit card numbers, passwords, PINs, routing numbers. Never share these in any AI or messaging interface.

3. Private health information: Medical diagnoses, medications, treatments, mental health details – for yourself or anyone else. Ask general health questions without specific personal identifying information.

4. Confidential organizational information: Proprietary business data, trade secrets, non-public financial information, personnel data, anything under NDA. Confidential is confidential – including in AI conversations.

5. Login credentials and passwords: Your own or anyone else's. Never share credentials with any AI or messaging system.

6. Information about others without their knowledge: Researching others using their private information raises serious ethical concerns and potential legal exposure.

Grok's X platform privacy context.

Grok is connected to X – which itself is a social media platform with its own data collection practices. When using Grok within X, your AI conversations occur within a platform designed for content creation and social engagement, operating under xAI Corp's data practices as part of that ecosystem.

The X platform connection does not create the same kind of familiarity risk as Meta AI's messaging integration – but Grok conversations within X are part of a commercial social media data context. Apply the same professional privacy standards you would to any commercial AI service.

Grok's content approach.

Grok is designed to engage with a wider range of topics more directly than some other AI tools. This is a design choice that has privacy and safety implications: more direct engagement with sensitive topics does not change the rules about what information should be shared. The six-category standard applies equally regardless of Grok's engagement style.

Indirect disclosure.

Sensitive information can be disclosed indirectly:

• "My company is about to announce a major acquisition – help me draft talking points" – discloses potentially material non-public information
• "My colleague was just put on a performance improvement plan – how do I…" – discloses another person's confidential personnel matter

The standard applies to information content, not how explicitly it is stated.