How to hide names and personal info in ChatGPT prompts
You can get the same help from ChatGPT without telling it who you are. Swap names and contact details for placeholders before you hit send. Here's how to do it by hand for free, and how to make it automatic.
Why it's worth the extra step
Whatever you paste into an AI chat leaves your computer. It's stored in your chat history, it may be used to train future models unless you switch that off, and shared chat links have ended up in Google results and public feeds. We collected real cases in real AI chat leaks, and the settings worth changing are in how to stop AI training on your chats.
Settings only control what happens after the text is sent. Hiding names controls what gets sent in the first place. The AI rarely needs to know who anyone is to help you.
What to remove from a prompt
| Remove | Replace with |
|---|---|
| Names (yours, family, coworkers, clients) | [PERSON A], [PERSON B] |
| Phone numbers and emails | [PHONE], [EMAIL] |
| Street address | [ADDRESS] (keeping the city is usually fine) |
| Birth date | [BIRTH DATE], or just an age range |
| ID numbers (driver's license, passport, member or case numbers) | [ID] |
| Employer or school | [COMPANY], or "a mid-size software company" |
| Rare details | Something general: a rare job title, an unusual event, a tiny town |
Rare details are the ones people forget. "The only pediatric dentist in a town of 900" can point to one person even with no name attached.
The manual method: placeholders
- Write or paste your prompt into a text editor first, not straight into the chat.
- Replace each person with a label that stays the same everywhere: the first person is always [PERSON A], the second always [PERSON B]. Consistent labels keep the AI from mixing people up.
- Replace contact details, addresses, dates of birth and ID numbers the same way.
- Tell the AI to keep the placeholders as they are in its answer.
- Paste the prompt into ChatGPT, then swap the real details back into the answer yourself.
Here's a message to a landlord, before and after. All details are made up.
Before
After
The AI gets everything it needs to write a good message (the problem, how long it's been going on, and what you want) and nothing that identifies you.
The catch: whole documents
A short message has four or five details. A full resume, a lab report or a long email thread can have a dozen or more, scattered across headers, signatures and quoted replies. Doing it by hand is slow, it's easy to miss one in the third reply down, and once the answer comes back you have to put every detail back in the right place. That's usually the point where people give up and paste the original.
The automatic way: Hushtag
The Hushtag Chrome extension does the placeholder method for you. Paste into ChatGPT as usual. Before the AI sees the text, Hushtag swaps names, phone numbers, emails, addresses and ID numbers for tags like #PERSON_1 and #PHONE_1. The masking happens on your device, and nothing is sent to Hushtag. Hushtag puts the real details back in the answer for you, and the AI never sees them.
- Where it works: the ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot websites in Chrome. It doesn't cover their desktop or phone apps.
- Free: 5 hushed pastes a day.
- Personal: US$4.99 a month or US$39 a year for unlimited use.
Hushtag is a safety net, not a guarantee. It can miss an unusual detail, like a rare job title, so glance over what was masked before you send.
Get Hushtag
Hushes your name, phone, email, address and ID numbers when you paste into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot. See how Hushtag works for individuals.
Questions
Does ChatGPT still work well with placeholders?
Yes. For writing, rewriting and explaining, the AI needs the situation, not the identity. Consistent labels like [PERSON A] or #PERSON_1 let it keep track of who's who.
Is Temporary Chat enough on its own?
No. Temporary Chats aren't saved to your history, but the text is still sent to OpenAI, which says it may keep it for up to 30 days for safety review. Hiding names limits what's sent at all.
Does Hushtag work in the ChatGPT phone or desktop app?
No. Hushtag works on the ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot websites in Chrome. It doesn't cover their desktop or phone apps, so use the website when your prompt has personal details.