Ask your AI to stop you if you start to type a password
Olivia Parr-Rud, who writes for Sixty and Me and says she's in her 70s, gave her AI a standing instruction: if she ever starts to share a password, an account number, or a Social Security number, stop her and remind her not to.
What they did
She put the rule in her AI app's settings, in the spot often called "custom instructions" or "personal preferences," so she only had to set it up once: "If I ever start to share a password, an account number, or a Social Security number, please stop me and remind me not to." It backs up her own short list of things she never types into AI, including bank and card numbers, PINs, and photos of her ID.
How it went
She's candid about the limit: the reminder only comes after you've pressed send. So she thinks of it as "a gentle friend helping me build good habits rather than a lock on the door," and says that over time the pause becomes second nature.
Worth knowing
This is a habit helper, not a safety lock. Once you press send, the AI has already received what you typed. The real protection is never typing passwords, PINs, or bank, card, Social Security, or Medicare numbers at all. Where custom instructions live, and how chats are saved, differs from app to app, so look at your app's settings and privacy page. If you share something by mistake, delete that chat and change the password.
Try it yourself
Copy this into AI assistant (not named for this tip) (or any AI assistant). Replace the parts in [brackets] with your own details.
Please follow this rule in every conversation: If I start to share a password, a PIN, a bank or card number, a Social Security or Medicare number, or a photo of my ID, stop and remind me not to, and show me how to ask my question without it. If I paste a document that shows my full name, birthdate, or account numbers, tell me which parts to cover up first.
Source: Olivia Parr-Rud, Sixty and Me, Oct 11, 2026. Read the original →
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