Claims registers and AI data leakage: what a claims spreadsheet gives away in ChatGPT or Claude.

A claims register is the one spreadsheet that shows every client’s worst year on a single screen. Claims staff keep it to track reserves and follow-ups, and paste it into ChatGPT or Claude to sort it, summarise the open claims or draft a status email. Each row names a client, an insurer and an amount, and the notes column holds injuries, insurers’ positions and the brokerage’s own candid remarks. This page marks every item in a realistic register that the Privacy Act and the Code of Practice bear on, shows which headings are harmless, and shows how the same register is worked on Ermos inside the brokerage.

The claims register

Updated by the claims team whenever an insurer reports a reserve or a status change, and reviewed weekly with the claims manager.

An invented register. Claim numbers are placeholders. Hover or tap any highlighted cell for the analysis; the full list is below.

What leaves the brokerage

1. 1
   The clients, by name

   Four named clients beside their claims. Information about each client’s affairs, and personal information where the client is a person or the business is a sole trader or small company with named directors. A workbook shared as a file also carries author and last-saved-by fields and any hidden tabs or columns. Privacy Act guide.

2. 2
   The injured person and the injury

   A named man, his age, his labour hire arrangement and a serious injury with a psychological referral. Health information about someone who is not the client, which is sensitive information under the Privacy Act, to the extent the brokerage is bound by it. Patient data guide.

3. 3
   The reserves

   The insurer’s estimate of what each open claim will cost. Confidential to the insurer and the client, and decisive in any negotiation. A reserve total often comes from a formula that reads other tabs, so a pasted workbook can bring those figures with it.

4. 4
   Rights reserved on indemnity

   The insurer’s position that it may decline to cover the claim. Information the client is entitled to know, and damaging if it reaches the claimant’s side. The Code of Practice has claims commitments (clause 7.1) that this entry sits under.

5. 5
   An uninsured loss, a frozen account and a partners’ disagreement

   A $61,000 loss with no policy, the bank’s action on the account and a note about disagreement between two directors. Commercial and personal information that is the subject of a live complaint. Privacy Act guide.

6. 6
   A household’s claims history

   Two private individuals, a home address and an at-fault motor claim that was disputed. Personal information, and claims history is what an insurer prices a household on. Privacy Act guide.

7. 7
   A third party’s age, displacement and anxiety

   A named woman of 71 who was displaced for six weeks and reports anxiety, about someone who is the client’s customer and not the brokerage’s. Personal information, with a health element. Patient data guide.

8. 8
   A patient’s complaint about a client

   A patient’s age and an alleged injury from treatment, notified as a circumstance. Health information about a person who never dealt with the brokerage. Patient data guide.

9. 9
   The column headings and status words

   Labels such as Claim, Client and Status. Generic wording found in any register, with no client data in it, so sending it exposes nothing.

10. 10
    The brokerage’s own note about a missed follow-up

    A candid internal remark that the brokerage’s phone follow-up was missed. It bears on the honesty and integrity commitment in clause 3.1 of the Code of Practice and on how the complaint is handled under the brokerage’s internal dispute resolution process (ASIC RG 271), and it is not yet a position the client has seen.

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 brokerage no longer controls it. Retention and deletion happen on the provider’s terms.

The same document on Ermos

Part of AI data leakage in insurance brokerages. See how this works in practice: Claims chronologies on Ermos.

Common questions