Policy · Knowledge Management
Policy on putting client documents into an AI knowledge tool
A policy for when personal information from a client document may be put into an AI knowledge tool: APP 6, the OAIC warning against public generative tools, and the point that a false or generated output about a person is still personal information.
- Kind
- Policy. A policy or procedure for a firm or client.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Yellow You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the authority it cites, for Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when the firm writes or reviews its rule on using client documents as AI knowledge. It sits beside the privilege clearance. It does not decide privilege, and it does not authorise a vendor.
Used for these tasks
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may point a user to this policy and list whether a document has been marked as cleared; the lawyer decides whether a secondary use is permitted.
AI may
- Quote this policy when a user asks whether a client document may be pasted into a tool
- List documents a lawyer has already marked as not for a public tool
AI must not
- Must not put a client document into a publicly available generative AI tool
- Must not decide that a client would reasonably expect an AI use of their information
- Must not treat a hallucination or a deepfake about an identifiable person as outside the Privacy Act
The lawyer checks
- Privilege clearance is still done under the separate record before advice files are ingested
- A public generative tool is not used for personal information, and particularly not for sensitive information
- If the developer can see the input, that disclosure is covered by the collection notice and the privacy policy, or it is not made
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is available after you log in. It is free. When you log in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Knowledge Management
- Privacy due diligence before an AI knowledge vendor is chosen
- Legislation and citation currency audit worksheet
- Precedent review and approval procedure (including AI-drafted and AI-updated precedents)
- Precedent metadata and version-control standard (for people and AI retrieval)
- Privilege and confidentiality clearance before know-how ingestion
- Information barrier record for an AI knowledge tool
- Minimisation worksheet before a document joins the precedent bank
- AI prompt library governance policy (prompt templates linked to precedents and tasks)
- Knowledge-base content licensing and copyright checklist (before AI ingestion)
- Judgment know-how note
- Training outline: checking an AI output before it is kept or used
- Retention schedule for AI-indexed know-how and prompt history
- Matter close-out know-how capture form with confidentiality scrub
- AI knowledge assistant governance and source-citation policy (permission-aware search, information barriers, citations)
All precedents for Knowledge Management · Tasks and AI use in this area