---
title: "Privilege and confidentiality clearance before know-how ingestion"
url: "https://ailawframework.com/precedents/knowledge-management/privilege-ingestion-assessment"
type: "precedent"
site: "AI Law Framework"
id: "km-privilege-ingestion-assessment"
area_id: "KM"
kind: "form"
ai_level: "red"
version: 1
task_ids: ["KM-B12-12", "KM-B12-18"]
law_stated_as_at: "2026-10-22"
---

# Privilege and confidentiality clearance before know-how ingestion

> Decision record, under s 118 and the duty of confidence, on whether a set of advice or client documents may be put into a know-how collection or an AI retrieval index.

Canonical page: https://ailawframework.com/precedents/knowledge-management/privilege-ingestion-assessment  
Law stated as at: 2026-10-22

Site index for agents: https://ailawframework.com/llms.txt

## Key facts

- Kind: Form. A form to complete, or a guide to completing an official one.
- Practice area: [Knowledge Management](https://ailawframework.com/precedents/knowledge-management.md)
- Jurisdictions: Australia
- AI level: Red. You write the text. The tool writes nothing into the document. Where permitted, it may check, clarify or collect data, and anything it checks or collects is verified.
- Law stated as at: 2026-10-22
- Status: Maintained. Checked on 2026-10-22 against the 5 authorities it cites, for Australia.

## When to use it

Complete before advice files, research memos or client documents are copied into a precedent bank, a vector index, or a tool other people in the firm can query. One record per set. A matter-only folder that only the matter team can open is a different, narrower decision and still needs a row.

## Used for these tasks

- [Assess privilege risk before ingesting advice files into AI](https://ailawframework.com/practice/knowledge-management/assess-privilege-risk-before-ingesting-advice-files-into-ai.md)
- [Draft a firm policy on using client documents as AI knowledge](https://ailawframework.com/practice/knowledge-management/draft-a-firm-policy-on-using-client-documents-as-ai-knowledge.md)

## How AI may be used

The lawyer decides whether the set is privileged or confidential and whether it may be ingested; a tool may only list filenames, dates and authors from metadata the lawyer exports.

**AI may:**

- List filename, date and author from metadata the lawyer has exported for this set.
- Count how many files are marked privileged in the document profile.

**AI must not:**

- Must not read the documents in order to decide privilege.
- Must not conclude that privilege has been waived, or that a document is safe to ingest.
- Must not copy the set into an index.

**The lawyer checks:**

- The s 118 question is answered by a lawyer who has considered the purpose of the documents, not by a metadata flag alone.
- The decision states the index, who can query it, and whether client identifiers have been removed.
- If the answer is no, the set is not in the index, including any draft upload.

## Authorities

- [Evidence Act 1995 (Cth) s 118 (legal advice privilege)](https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ea199580/s118.html)
- [Federal Court of Australia, GPN-AI, 16 April 2026, paras 4.13 to 4.15 (confidential, privileged, suppressed and private information)](https://www.fedcourt.gov.au/law-and-practice/practice-documents/practice-notes/gpn-ai)
- [Law Society of NSW, Legal Practice Board of WA and Victorian Legal Services Board + Commissioner, Statement on the use of artificial intelligence in Australian legal practice (6 December 2024)](https://lsbc.vic.gov.au/news-updates/news/statement-use-artificial-intelligence-australian-legal-practice)
- [Legal Profession Uniform Law Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules 2015, including r 9.1 (confidentiality) and rr 4.1.2 and 4.1.3 (honesty, competence), as stated in the 6 December 2024 joint statement](https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/sl-2015-0244)
- [OAIC, Guidance on privacy and the use of commercially available AI products (October 2024)](https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-guidance-for-organisations-and-government-agencies/guidance-on-privacy-and-the-use-of-commercially-available-ai-products)

## Full text and drafting notes

The full text and the drafting notes are not part of this public page. Signed-in firm accounts can read them at https://ailawframework.com/precedents/knowledge-management/privilege-ingestion-assessment and through the signed-in MCP connector https://ailawframework.com/mcp/firm.

*Practice guidance for planning and review. Confirm current primary sources and the requirements of the actual matter. This is general information, not legal advice.*