How to Get Personal Without Oversharing

E-Portal Essex Chatbot Blog Series

Welcome back! This week, we’re tackling a common question:
How do I describe my work to a chatbot in a way that’s helpful – without oversharing personal or confidential information?

Let’s break it down.

🧠 Why Personalised Input Matters

Chatbots – like the one on E-Portal Essex – can save you loads of time and effort. But here’s the deal: the better the input, the better the output. To get truly useful answers, you’ll need to share a bit about your organisation or your specific situation.

That doesn’t mean spilling all your secrets. It just means giving enough detail to be clear, without giving away anything sensitive.

🔐 What Happens to Your Data?

Most chatbots learn from what you type. That’s how they improve. But it’s worth knowing where your data goes:

Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot keep your chats private within an Enterprise or Charity account.
The E-Portal Essex Chatbot uses ChatGPT behind the scenes – but your chats aren’t used to train future models. A temporary copy is stored on your device and OpenAI’s server.
ChatGPT personal accounts do use your chats to improve the model – unless you switch this off in Settings.

💡 Tip: If you’re working with sensitive data, anonymise it first – it is advised to remove names, personal emails, mobile numbers, and anything that could be traced back to a person or is highly confidential to your organisation.

🛠 Tools to Help You Stay Private

ChatGPT’s “Temporary Chat” mode is a good option. Your chats aren’t saved or used for training – but remember: you won’t have access to the history, so copy anything you want to keep into a separate document before you clear the chat.
Meeting transcription tools vary. Zoom and Teams keep your recordings private, but some third-party services don’t. If you’re unsure, ask the chatbot to summarise the Privacy Policy – and always check the link it gives you.

👀 Two Real-World Examples

Using the E-Portal Essex Chatbot

“We’re a charity running outdoor fitness sessions in Braintree. Please use the attached list of staff names and job titles to create a personalised email…”
✅ Leave out personal contact details.

Using ChatGPT with Temporary Chat

“We’re a charity running outdoor fitness sessions in Braintree. Attached is my draft costing spreadsheet with salaries. Help me work out the monthly shortfall.”
Follow up with:
“How can I reduce office costs and the monthly staffing bill?”
“Please create a table of ideas.”
“Add a column for actions I should take.”
✅ Remember to save your outputs – Temporary Chat doesn’t store them!

✅ Final Checklist

Before sharing anything confidential with a chatbot:

Ask it for the Privacy Policy – and check the link.
Review your own settings if you’ve got a ChatGPT account.
Use anonymised data whenever possible.
Use Temporary Chat for sensitive one-off questions – and save your work!

Next week: The Smart Way to Ask Better Questions – and get even more value from your chatbot.