A recent study revealed a worrying fact: many professionals share confidential business files on AI platforms without asking their employer’s permission. This finding adds to the growing concerns related to AI regulatory compliance and business data security.

We are still figuring out how to balance the benefits and risks of sharing business data with AI to gain insights from large amounts of data. And we are still working on creating clear policies and procedures for using AI for work.

This is, probably, the best explanation of the results of the study. Let us examine them in more detail to understand the nature and extent of the issue.

2 in 5 Professionals Upload Work-Related Files on AI Platforms

In the study, 38% of the respondents admitted that they uploaded sensitive data to the AI platform. These include confidential business strategies, that are meant to give their employer a competitive edge.

Moreover, the respondents admitted that they have no idea how AI processes and stores these files. Most of them were surprised to learn that AI platform owners can use these data to train newer models. Thus, the sensitive information uploaded on the AI platform could be used to offer advice to their employer’s competitors in the future.

Another Major AI Data Privacy Risk: Sharing Personal Information

The study on AI workplace risks revealed another serious concern. Employees do not remove personal identifying information (PII) from files before sharing it with AI platforms. They revealed that some of the documents they uploaded contained:

• Names, addresses and contact details
• Customer login details
• Banking details included in payroll files.

What is worse, 30% of the respondents did not believe that protecting personal data when interacting with AI is worth the effort. This is a huge concern for their employers, who could be facing GDPR violation penalties and legal action from the persons whose PII was shared without their consent.

Professionals Also Share Passwords and Login Credentials with AI

Besides uploading confidential files to AI platforms, many employees also give these platforms access to various accounts to automate tasks. In most of the cases, these accounts are on proprietary software suites or online tools containing vast quantities of sensitive data.

Indiscriminate access to accounts can trigger severe AI cybersecurity risks. The login data could end up in the hands of cybercriminals, who gain an open door to the company’s data.

Huge Amounts of Financial Data Fed to AI Models

As mentioned above, AI is often used to process large amounts of data and extract useful insights. However, when we are talking about a company’s financial data, feeding it to these platforms poses major enterprise AI risks.

On one hand, these confidential data can train AI models to suggest successful strategies to the company’s competitors. On the other hand, the lack of proper cybersecurity can leak the data to cybercriminals, either through a vulnerable browser or through malware already installed on the device.

AI Use Could Infringe Patents and Intellectual Property Rights

Last but not least, among other AI data privacy risks is the feeding of proprietary information to these platforms. Many developers use AI tools to speed up code writing. But this means that any proprietary software created by their employer has its source code available in an AI model.

The AI model will be trained based on this code and is likely to use it in the future to generate code for other projects. We have already witnessed the first lawsuits against code generators. Even if the plaintiffs did not win, the precedent is set. And the cases will become increasingly more complex and messier as AI gets access to more trade secrets and intellectual property.

Mitigate AI Data Privacy Risks with Cybersecurity and Employee Awareness

Learning how to protect confidential data in AI is essential for mitigating all these risks. Also, it is essential to have your entire IT ecosystem protected by advanced cybersecurity solutions.

CyberFlow is the answer to both aspects. Our team of experienced cybersecurity professionals can educate your employees and install the most advanced solutions to safeguard your IT systems and data. Contact us today to get a personalised offer!