Buyer and seller chat messages and AI data leakage: what a settlement group chat gives away in ChatGPT or Claude.

Agents set up group chats between buyer and vendor to sort keys, inspections and moving dates, and clients forward them to their conveyancer when something needs advice. A conveyancer then pastes the thread into ChatGPT or Claude to summarise it or draft a reply. The chat is informal, so it holds what no formal document would: an alarm code, a bereavement, a pregnancy, the vendor’s whereabouts, the payout figure and a late request to send the proceeds to another account. This page marks every line in one such chat that bears on Scamwatch advice, NSW record keeping and the Privacy Act, and shows how the thread is handled on Ermos.

The buyer and seller chat messages

Forwarded to the practice by a client in the weeks before settlement, when a message in the agent’s group chat needs advice or has to go on the file.

An invented chat between invented people. The alarm code is made up. Hover or tap any highlighted line for the analysis; the full list is below.

What leaves the practice

1. 1
   The buyer and the vendor

   Two named people, one of whom is not the practice’s client. Personal information about both, in a thread the vendor has not agreed to see processed. Privacy Act guide.

2. 2
   The alarm code and key location

   A way into a property, with a note of where the spare key is. Not personal information on its own, but with the address in the thread it is a security credential.

3. 3
   The vendor’s bereavement and whereabouts

   A recent death, a daughter in another town and the dates the unit is empty. Personal information about a third party that has nothing to do with the advice the client wants. Privacy Act guide.

4. 4
   The inspection time

   When the buyers will be in the unit. A routine time that the agent already knows, but combined with the address and the dates it shows when the property is occupied.

5. 5
   A pregnancy and a due month

   Health information about a named client. Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act, which has stricter rules for its collection, use and disclosure. Patient data guide.

6. 6
   The payout figure

   The vendor’s own estimate of what he owes the bank. Financial information about a third party. Privacy Act guide.

7. 7
   The request to redirect the proceeds

   A vendor asking for money to go to another person’s account. Scamwatch lists payee details that change without notice as a warning sign of payment redirection, and a message like this is both a genuine query and a template for a fraudulent one.

8. 8
   The buyers’ funding and settlement time

   That the buyers’ funds are arranged with a named bank and when settlement happens. The two facts a fraudster needs to time a message. Privacy Act guide.

9. 9
   The agent and the agency

   A named agent at a named agency who set up the chat. Her name is on the listing, so it is not secret, but a fraudster could write as her.

What happens in Frontier Models (ChatGPT, Claude)

• The whole document is transmitted to the provider’s servers. On personal plans the user cannot choose where it is stored or processed, and for the major providers that has generally meant outside Australia, under that country’s legal process. Some business plans offer storage in Australia, but the provider still receives the content.
• On consumer tiers, prompts can be retained and used to train future models.
• The provider’s staff and systems can reach the content under the provider’s own policies.
• Once sent, the practice no longer controls it. Retention and deletion happen on the provider’s terms.

The same document on Ermos

Part of AI data leakage in conveyancing practices.

Common questions