Keep sensitive information out of prompts
A prompt leaves your server. Once submitted it cannot be recalled, and there is no delete button. That single fact should govern what you type into a prompt field.
Never put these in a prompt
- Passwords, API keys, license keys, OAuth tokens or authorization codes.
- Bank details, card numbers, IBANs.
- Identity document numbers — passport, national ID, tax number, driving licence.
- Health information about an identifiable person.
- Login credentials of any kind.
- Private keys, certificates or connection strings.
None of these is ever needed to produce content. If you find yourself pasting one, stop: the task can be described without it.
Think twice about these
Customer data. Names, addresses, order details, support-ticket contents. If you need a testimonial rewritten or a case study drafted, describe the situation generically — a manufacturing client with three sites — rather than pasting the record.
Employee data. Salaries, performance notes, contracts, personal circumstances.
Unpublished commercial information. Pricing you have not announced, margins, supplier terms, negotiation positions, acquisition plans.
Internal metrics. Revenue, conversion rates, churn, anything you would not publish.
Third-party confidential material. Anything under NDA, and anything a client gave you for one purpose.
Unreleased product details. A prompt about an unannounced product is a description of an unannounced product leaving your infrastructure.
The fields that are transmitted repeatedly
The prompt is not the only field that leaves the site.
The short description and structured business-profile fields under Settings → POM AI → AI Setup are persistent context. Each tool transmits only the saved sections relevant to its task, but a relevant section may still be sent repeatedly over time. Keep unpublished strategy, customer names and internal figures out of them entirely.
The content being worked on is sent by tools that transform existing content. The paragraph assistant sends the editor's current content. Translation sends the full text of every element you selected.
That second point deserves attention before a bulk run: translating a page sends that page's entire content. If a page contains personal data, translating it transmits that personal data. Check the content set before translating, not after.
Selected images are sent by the image enhancer, background remover and metadata tools. An image can contain personal data too — a screenshot with customer records, a photograph of a document, a name badge.
Prompt templates are shared
Templates saved under Settings → POM AI → Prompt templates are visible to everyone who can use the tools, which includes editors as well as administrators.
Treat a template's content as internal shared text. Never save a template containing customer data, credentials or commercial information you would not put in a team wiki.
Rewriting a request to be safe
Most tasks that seem to need sensitive data do not.
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| Pasting a customer's complaint | A customer whose order arrived two weeks late and who has asked for a refund |
| Pasting a real invoice | An invoice for professional services with three line items and 21% VAT |
| Pasting employee details | A senior engineer with eight years in the role |
| Pasting your price list | A mid-range option positioned between two others |
| Pasting an unreleased spec | A product in this category with an emphasis on durability |
The generic version produces equally good copy. The tool is writing prose, not analysing your data.
Screenshots and support
The same rule applies to anything you send support. A useful report needs the site URL, the time, the tool, the shape of the input and the exact error code — never the license key, an MCP API key, a token or a customer record.
Redact screenshots before attaching them. See Updates, support and safe maintenance.
If something was sent by mistake
You cannot unsend it. What you can do:
- If it was a credential, rotate it now. A license key is rotated from My Account → Licenses & Downloads; see Rotate a license key safely. Other credentials are rotated wherever they live.
- If it was personal data, follow your own incident procedure. Record what was sent, when and by whom.
- Remove it from any saved template or the business description, so it is not sent again.
- Tell whoever is responsible for data protection in your organisation.
Team practice
- Agree what may never go in a prompt, and write it down.
- Review saved templates periodically for content that has crept in.
- Review the business description with the same eye.
- Tell new editors before they get access, not afterwards.
See Understand data sent for AI processing for what is transmitted and what is stored.