Check a document before you upload it to ChatGPT
Uploading a file to a chatbot is not like showing someone a page. You are handing over the whole file, including everything in it you cannot see: who wrote it, what was deleted, which comments were left, and where a photo was taken.
Depending on the provider and the plan, that content may be retained, and on some plans it may be reviewed by people to improve the service. Enterprise and API tiers usually promise otherwise. The point is that it is a question worth answering before the upload, not after — and either way, what you send is what you sent.
Works today, in your browser. Photos open in the editor and Word documents are checked for hidden data; either way the file is read on your device and never uploaded.
What you are actually sending
The part you wanted help with is usually a fraction of the file.
- In a Word file: the author, the last editor, the company, every comment, and the tracked changes that still hold the deleted text
- In a screenshot: whatever else was on screen — a tab title, a notification, a colleague’s name, an email in the corner
- In a photo: GPS coordinates, the capture time, and the device
- In a spreadsheet: hidden worksheets and columns somebody hid rather than deleted
Screenshots are the quiet one
Pasting a screenshot feels lighter than attaching a document, so people are less careful about it. But a screenshot of an invoice is an invoice: name, address, account number, amount. A screenshot of a terminal is often an API key. A screenshot of a dashboard carries whichever customer happened to be on screen.
A workflow that does not slow you down
The point is not to stop using AI tools. It is to know what is in the file first, so the decision is a decision.
- Check the file here — it is read on your device and never uploaded
- Read the findings; each says what it could be used for
- Download a cleaned copy if the issues are in metadata, comments or edit history
- Cover anything visible you do not want to send, or crop it
- Then upload the cleaned copy rather than the original
What we check today
Images and Word documents, in the browser. PDFs, Excel and CSV are implemented in the engine and tested, but not switched on in the website yet — so if you are about to paste a PDF into a chatbot, this tool cannot help you with that one today.
Questions
No. Nothing here is an AI service and nothing is uploaded. The check runs in your browser, which is rather the point — a tool for avoiding careless uploads should not be making one.
It depends on the product and the settings, and it changes. Consumer plans have historically defaulted to using conversations for improvement with an opt-out; business, enterprise and API tiers generally do not. Check your provider’s current terms — and either way, decide what is in the file before you send it.
It drops the document’s metadata, which helps, and it adds whatever else was on your screen, which does not. Neither is automatically safer; they leak different things.
There is an HTTP API for checking and cleaning files from your own software, with the same detection engine. It does receive the bytes, in memory, for the length of one request — nothing is written to disk or to a database.
Related
- Remove the author from a Word documentStrip the author, last-edited-by, company and comments from a .docx file, and accept tracked changes so delete…
- File privacy scannerScan a file for personal data, hidden metadata, author names and edit history before you share it. Runs in you…
- Detect sensitive information in imagesFind GPS coordinates, faces, ID numbers, card numbers and boarding-pass barcodes in an image before you share …
We report no issues found, never “safe”. Absence of detections is not proof of absence, and detection is best-effort.