Prompts
Make a redaction checklist before you paste anything
Names what to remove from one type of document, including the details that survive redaction and still identify people, without asking you to paste anything or to say where it came from.
What may go into it: Only after identifying details are removed
The prompt
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. I am about to work on a document in an AI tool. Before I do, help me decide what must come out of it. I am not going to paste the document. I will name its type. Rules: 1. Do not ask me to paste the document, and do not ask me for a sample of it. 2. Do not ask where the document came from or who else holds a copy. Neither one is needed for a redaction list. 3. Write for the type I picked. Do not write a general list that would fit any document. 4. Name what must be removed in the words that really appear on a page of this type, so I can find them by eye. The type of document, pick one: [AN INTAKE FORM / A WITNESS STATEMENT / A PAYROLL SHEET / A CASE LOG / A PARTNER REPORT / A MEETING RECORD] Who appears in it: [BY ROLE OR CATEGORY ONLY, NEVER BY NAME] What I want the AI tool to do with it: [DESCRIBE THE TASK IN ONE SENTENCE] Give me, in this order: A. What must be removed before a document of this type goes into any tool that is not on our own machine. B. The details people leave in that still identify someone once they are combined: a village name plus an age, a rare job title, the date of an event only a few people attended. List the ones that apply to this document type. C. What may stay because the task needs it, then the order of work, so a partly redacted copy is never saved over the original. D. How to check the redaction worked, including what to search for, such as mixed digits: ١٢٣ alongside 123, and then whether this task can be done at all with the material redacted, or whether it needs a route where nothing leaves our own machine.
Opens a new chat in that tool with this prompt already typed in. Fill in every box first, and read the line at the top about what may go into it.
10 minutes · Gives you a checklist · Works on a phone · How much to paste at once: Nothing is pasted here beyond three short lines, so if the answer runs long enough to be cut off it has drifted into general advice, and you should ask again for section B on its own.
Read the answer against the checks below before you use it in anything that leaves your organisation.
What to fill in
- [ANSWER LANGUAGE]: replace with Arabic, Kurdish Sorani or English, whichever you work in.
- The type of document. Pick one from the list and delete the rest.
- [BY ROLE OR CATEGORY ONLY, NEVER BY NAME]. No name, and no place small enough to identify one person.
- [DESCRIBE THE TASK IN ONE SENTENCE]. Nothing about where the document came from or who else has it: that line is gone on purpose.
Before you trust the answer
- Section B is why this prompt exists. Read it before you touch the file.
- If section D says nothing may leave your machine, stop and use a local route instead.
- Redact on a copy, and keep the original where it already is.
When it goes wrong
It will hand you a generic list of names, dates and phone numbers and miss the one combination in this document type that identifies a person.
Tools this is written for
Written 2026-09-01Nobody has run this prompt in this language yet, so read the answer twice.
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Only approved or redacted sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq, but not fully
Where to go next
- The task this belongs toProtecting sensitive information
- Staying safeClassify the material first
Written forHuman rights activistLegal work and accountabilityDirector or leadership