Keeping customer details out of public replies and AI tools

Two things can go wrong. You can paste private details into an AI tool, and you can post private details in a public reply. They're separate risks, and you need to watch both.

What goes in a public reply

A reply is public. Google says plainly that replies are public.¹ Anyone can read it, and it can sit there for years.

Google's content policy forbids sharing or posting personal information without consent.² It lists financial information, medical information and personal identification information among the things that count.² Google's reply advice adds that if a situation is complex, you can politely ask the reviewer to contact you by phone or email to resolve it privately.¹

So keep these out of a reply:

• Full names, other than a first name the reviewer already used.
• Phone numbers, emails and home addresses.
• Order, booking, account or invoice numbers.
• Anything about money owed, payments or refunds amounts.
• Anything about a person's health or treatment.
• Details of what staff said or did to the customer that the customer didn't post.

Confirming that someone was a customer can reveal something too, especially for a clinic, a law office or a counselling service. For those, a general reply that doesn't confirm a visit, plus an invitation to get in touch directly, is the careful route. Rules about this differ by country and by profession. Check your own regulator or professional body.

What goes into an AI tool

Pasting a review into a chat tool is also sharing it with that tool's maker, in some form. What happens next depends on the product and its settings.

Australia's privacy regulator says privacy obligations will apply to any personal information put into an AI system.³ As a best practice, it advises against entering personal information, and especially sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools.³

That guidance is Australian. In the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, different laws and regulators apply. Look up your own country's privacy regulator, or ask a lawyer or privacy adviser. This site can't tell you what the law requires where you are.

A safer habit works anywhere:

1. Copy the review text.
2. Replace names, numbers and places with placeholders such as [customer] or [order].
3. Paste only that.
4. Add the name back by hand after editing.

Don't paste your own records

The review is already public. Your internal notes aren't. Be wary of pasting booking systems, emails, invoices or chat logs into a tool to help it "get the facts". Write a short summary in your own words instead, with no identifying details.

What you'll notice when you check

Read the draft for details you didn't supply. A tool might fill in a plausible surname or a service date. If it's wrong, it's embarrassing. If it happens to be right, you've still posted private information. Delete both.

Then read the reply as a stranger would. Could someone work out who this is, what was ordered and when? If so, trim.

Moving the case offline

When there's a real problem to sort out, say so briefly in public and take the details to a call or email. Something like: "We'd like to put this right. Please call us on the number on our profile." That's the idea in Google's tip, written plainly.¹

For tone with upset customers, see negative reviews with AI. For what platforms say about replies, see platform rules.