Who it is for
For anyone who wants to use AI tools without handing over their privacy or their company's secrets.
Trust & Self-Defense / Intermediate
Your Data Your Rules
Use AI tools without handing over your privacy or your company's secrets.
The problem
It starts with the situation you're actually in.
Most AI safety advice points at the wrong end of the conversation. It warns you about hallucinations, bias, and made-up citations — all problems with what the model says back to you. Those are real, but the bigger risk is what you type in.
You've built the parts: a terms read, a tier system, a redaction habit, a settings audit, a team policy, a defensibility file. But most AI exposure doesn't happen in the moments you plan for — it happens in the ones you don't.
Outcomes
What you'll be able to do.
Sort the data, not the tool
You judge the risk by what you're about to share — a draft email, a spreadsheet row, a contract clause, a customer complaint, a block of code — not by which tool you're using.
Separate the problem's shape from its identifying details
You get a repeatable way to abstract a situation and strip the identifying details, so you're not doing it by hand every time — rushing, missing the client name in paragraph three, pasting the spreadsheet "just this once.".
Why "just be careful" fails as a policy
You see why individual discipline doesn't scale: the moment a colleague pastes a customer list into a free chatbot, your careful work stops mattering. Shared data means shared risk, and rules only hold when someone writes them down and makes them easy to follow.
The Question You Can't Answer After the Fact
You're ready when a client's general counsel asks, in writing, exactly which internal documents your team entered into AI tools, under what terms, and whether their confidential materials were among them — or when a regulator asks how you handle personal data.
Inside the book
A closer look at the work inside.
Map your current AI usage
Open your Data Rules File and build the table. Be honest — it's a private baseline, not a performance review. List every AI tool you've used for work in the last month and what you actually fed it.
Baseline self-assessment
Score yourself 0–3 on each line (0 = never, 3 = always), total it, and date it. You'll re-score the identical list later to measure how far you've moved — starting with whether you know if each tool trains on your inputs, and whether you check the account type before pasting work data.
Before you type, every time
Tape this to the front of your Data Rules File. By an earlier chapter it becomes automatic; for now, run it manually.
- What am I about to send? Name the data type out loud.
- Who or what could it identify? Person, company, account, system.
- What account am I in? Free and consumer defaults are the leakiest.
- Could I get the same answer with the identifiers removed? Usually yes.
- If this surfaced publicly tomorrow, would I be fine? If not, stop and strip it down.
Same task, two inputs
You're a sales manager who wants AI help rewriting an underperforming renewal proposal. Watch how the input — not the request — decides the risk: the higher-risk version pastes the full renewal email.
The terms-review worksheet
Pick one AI tool you actually used this week. Open its terms of service and privacy policy in another window and fill in the worksheet, a sentence each: tool and plan, date reviewed, and first, whether your inputs are used to train or improve the model.
Map your current AI usageInside the book
Visual preview
A diagram you can keep open while you work.
Table of contents
8 chapters, built to be read in order.
01
The Input Is the Risk
02
Read the Fine Print Before You Paste
03
Classify Before You Click
04
Prompt Without Leaking
05
Lock Down the Tools You Already Use
06
Set Rules for Your Team
07
Stay Legal and Defensible
08
Your Data, Your Rules in Practice
142
Pages
11,424
Words
42
Exercises, checklists & tools
8
Chapters
Formats
Three formats. One purchase.
EPUB, PDF, and HTML are included so the book can work on an e-reader, as a designed copy, or as a searchable desk reference.
EPUB
For e-readers and reading apps.
The designed edition with diagrams and layouts intact.
HTML
Searchable, copy-pasteable, and practical as a reference.
Complete guide
Your Data Your Rules
$9.99
Intermediate guide pricing
- ✓EPUB + PDF + HTML included in one purchase
- ✓8 chapters from the complete guide
- ✓DRM-free files for your own devices
- ✓7-day refund review for duplicate purchases, access issues, wrong files, or materially defective downloads
Secure checkout / instant download / tax handled at checkout
Before you buy
Questions, answered.
Does this include the full book?
Yes. You get the complete edition, including the chapter sequence and internal materials described on this page.
Which formats are included?
EPUB, PDF, and HTML are included so you can read on an e-reader, keep a designed copy, or use the searchable browser version.
What is the refund policy?
Because this is an instant digital download, broad change-of-mind refunds are not offered after the files have been accessed. Refund requests are reviewed within 7 days for duplicate purchases, accidental purchases before access, access failures we cannot fix, wrong files, corrupted files, or pages that materially misdescribe the book.