# Remove personal information: checklist

Find the personal details in a text, swap each one for a placeholder, change nothing else, and get a short list of what a person must still check before the text goes anywhere.

## Before you start

- [ ] Have ready: The text to clean
  Paste the text as it stands. Paste only what your rules let you put into an AI tool; if they say no, take the names and numbers out by hand instead.
- [ ] Have ready: What may stay (optional)
  For example job titles, or the name of a town. Leave empty if nothing may stay.

## Step 1: List every personal detail

- [ ] Pick out each detail that names or points to one person, quoted word for word, before anything is changed.
- [ ] You have: A numbered table of the personal details, each quoted from the text.
- [ ] Check: Every quote in the Detail (quote) column appears word for word in the text to clean.
  A plain rule you can check by eye. If not: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it.

## Step 2: Choose a placeholder for each detail

- [ ] Give each detail a kind and a placeholder, with the same placeholder for the same person.
- [ ] You have: A table that gives each detail a kind and a placeholder.
- [ ] Check: Every row of the table has one of "name", "email", "phone", "street address", "ID number", "birth date" or "indirect" in the Kind column.
  A plain rule you can check by eye. If not: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it.

## Step 3: Write the cleaned text

- [ ] Replace each detail with its placeholder everywhere it appears and change nothing else.
- [ ] You have: The text with each personal detail replaced by its placeholder.
- [ ] Check: Every number in the answer also appears in the text to clean.
  A plain rule you can check by eye. If not: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it.

## Step 4: Add the count and the reminder

- [ ] Put the count, the cleaned text and a short list of what a person must still check into one package.
- [ ] You have: A count line, the cleaned text, a list of what to check yourself, and the reminder line.
- [ ] Check: The answer includes the words "Read the cleaned text yourself before you share it.".
  A plain rule you can check by eye. If not: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it.

## Final checks

- [ ] Check: Read the cleaned text in the answer. Does any detail in the table below still appear in it, whole or in part, such as a first name on its own or the last digits of a number? Answer FAIL and quote each place where one is left.
  Checked by a second AI prompt. If not: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it.
- [ ] Check: Compare the cleaned text in the answer with the original text below. Apart from the placeholders, is every word, number and punctuation mark the same, and is each placeholder where a listed detail stood? Answer FAIL and quote any other change, such as a word that was dropped, reworded or swapped by mistake.
  Checked by a second AI prompt. If not: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it.
- [ ] Check: Count the rows in the table below, in total and by kind. Do the numbers on the Result line of the answer match those counts? Answer FAIL and say which count is wrong.
  Checked by a second AI prompt. If not: Run the step once more, and add what was wrong to the end of the prompt. If it still does not pass, fix it by hand and make a note of it.
- [ ] Check: Read the cleaned text from top to bottom as someone who knows the people in it. Decide what to do about each item under "Look at these yourself", and look for anything else that could point to one person, such as a nickname, a rare job, or a date and a place together. Only a person can say who the reader may already know.
  Checked by you. If not: Carry on, but write down the problem so whoever uses the result knows about it.

## You end up with

- [ ] A count of the details that were replaced, in total and by kind.
- [ ] The text with each of those details swapped for a placeholder.
- [ ] A short list of the places a person must still check.

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From Logic Lab (logiclabhq.com). Free to use and adapt, with credit.