File privacy before AI

Prepare the file, then use AI.

Practical, source-backed guides for reducing unnecessary disclosure in documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, and code files before an AI upload.

11 guides + product pageUpdated August 21, 2026Official sources

Start with the risk, not the tool

A review workflow you can explain.

Each guide separates visible content, hidden data, service settings, and human review. No guide promises that automated detection makes a file completely safe or anonymous.

Featured product pageAI Document Sanitizer: Make Files Safe Before You UploadSee the planned workflow, evidence standard, format coverage, and known limits.Explore FilePreflight →

ChatGPT privacy

Is It Safe to Upload Confidential Company Documents to ChatGPT?

A decision framework for ChatGPT uploads covering workspace type, training controls, retention, administrator access, data minimisation, and document preparation.

Read guide → Practical workflow

How to Redact Sensitive Information Before Uploading Documents to ChatGPT

A format-aware workflow for minimising, redacting, sanitising, and verifying a document before it is uploaded to ChatGPT.

Read guide → Company data

How to Anonymize Company Data Before Using ChatGPT or Claude

A practical method for reducing identification and commercial disclosure risk while preserving enough structure for useful AI analysis.

Read guide → Excel & XLSX

How to Anonymize Excel Data Before AI Analysis

A workbook-specific checklist for visible cells, hidden sheets, formulas, comments, external links, document properties, and a final clean-copy review.

Read guide → Hidden data

Remove Hidden Data and Metadata Before Sharing Documents with AI

A format-by-format guide to document properties, comments, revisions, attachments, hidden layers, image metadata, and post-removal verification.

Read guide → Local workflow

Offline Document Redaction Before ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini

How to evaluate a local redaction workflow, understand where offline processing ends, and minimise the copy later uploaded to an AI service.

Read guide → PDF

Redact and Sanitize a PDF Before Uploading It to ChatGPT

A careful PDF workflow covering permanent visible redaction, hidden-content sanitisation, scanned pages, OCR review, metadata, attachments, and final verification.

Read guide → Evaluation

Document Privacy Scanner for AI Uploads: What a Useful Scan Should Show

How to assess scanner coverage, evidence, false negatives, format support, remediation, rechecking, and the meaning of a no-findings result.

Read guide → Comparison

Best Offline Document Redaction Tools for AI: An Honest Comparison

A use-case comparison of FilePreflight, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Microsoft Document Inspector, and ExifTool without treating desktop software as automatically offline.

Read guide → Legal workflow

Legal Document Redaction Before Using AI

A cautious workflow for legal documents covering confidentiality, privilege, client and organisational approval, metadata, case-specific identifiers, and human review.

Read guide → Code & secrets

Remove API Keys, Credentials, and Secrets Before Using AI Coding Tools

A response-first workflow for finding credentials in code, configuration, logs, notebooks, and history—and rotating anything already exposed.

Read guide →