By Rom c
Founder of Questa AI
Hi everyone,
I’ve recently started using public LLM tools (like ChatGPT and similar AI assistants) to help with tasks such as:
- debugging scripts
- reviewing configs
- analyzing server logs
- generating infrastructure commands
They’re really helpful for productivity, but I’m concerned about the security side when working with cloud environments.
Sometimes logs, configs, or snippets may contain:
- IP addresses
- API keys/tokens
- database details
- customer or production data
Uploading that to a public AI tool feels risky from a privacy and compliance perspective.
For those working with DigitalOcean or other cloud platforms:
What’s considered best practice here?
Do you:
- sanitize/anonymize data first?
- use only mock data?
- rely on internal/self-hosted AI tools?
- or avoid pasting sensitive info entirely?
Would love to hear how others handle this safely in real-world workflows. Thanks!
This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.
You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!
Hi there,
For me, a good rule of thumb is to treat public LLMs like a public pastebin. If you would not paste it on the internet, do not paste it into an AI tool.
What most people do in practice:
-
Sanitize first: redact IPs, tokens, customer data, hostnames, etc.
-
Use mock or representative configs instead of real production ones
-
Avoid pasting full prod logs or secrets entirely
For more sensitive workloads, running models in your own environment is the safest route. On DigitalOcean, the Gradient platform lets you work with LLMs inside your own cloud setup, so data does not leave your control: https://www.digitalocean.com/products/gradient/platform
Public LLMs are great for speed and productivity, just use them with the same caution you would use when sharing anything publicly.
Become a contributor for community
Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.
DigitalOcean Documentation
Full documentation for every DigitalOcean product.
Resources for startups and SMBs
The Wave has everything you need to know about building a business, from raising funding to marketing your product.
The developer cloud
Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.
Get started for free
Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*
*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.