Worker rosters and AI data leakage: what an NDIS roster spreadsheet gives away in ChatGPT or Claude.

The roster is the sheet a team leader builds every week and rebuilds every day. When a worker calls in sick at 6am, the quickest fix is to paste the roster into ChatGPT or Claude and ask who can cover. The sheet shows which participants live alone, their addresses, exactly when a worker is with them, the notes workers need for each person and sometimes the lockbox code. This page marks every item in a week’s NDIS roster that the Code of Conduct, the Practice Standards and the Privacy Act bear on, and shows how the same cover question is answered on Ermos inside the service.

The worker roster spreadsheet

Built weekly by the team leader and changed daily. The Code of Conduct requires supports to be provided in a safe and competent manner, which is why the roster carries one-to-one notes, and also why the sheet is dangerous to share.

An invented roster. The lockbox code is invented. Hover or tap any highlighted item for the analysis; the full list is below.

What leaves the service

1. 1
   Worker names

   The workers who attend each home. Their personal information, and the link between a named person and a participant’s front door. Privacy Act guide.

2. 2
   Participant names

   Four participants named in one sheet. Personal information the Information Management standard expects to be kept confidential. Privacy Act guide.

3. 3
   Home addresses

   Where each participant lives, several of them alone. Information that bears on physical safety as much as privacy. Privacy Act guide.

4. 4
   Days and times

   When a worker is, and is not, with each person. In the wrong hands, a schedule of when someone who lives alone is unattended.

5. 5
   One-to-one notes

   Health and behaviour notes, a locked alcohol cupboard, a cast, a medical appointment, a relationship a participant has asked to keep from his mother and what to say if someone hears voices. Health information, and confidences given for one purpose. Patient data guide.

6. 6
   A lockbox code

   The code that opens a key box beside a participant’s front door. Anyone who receives the file receives the key. The Code of Conduct requires supports to be provided in a safe and competent manner.

7. 7
   A worker stood down

   That a named worker is stood down pending an incident review, and an instruction about where he must not be rostered. Employment information and an allegation that has not become a finding. Privacy Act guide.

8. 8
   A first shift for a young woman

   That a young woman with an intellectual disability will be collected at the door on a given day. A family’s instruction about photos. Privacy Act guide.

9. 9
   A count formula

   A formula that counts a worker’s rows. It has no personal data in it. A real roster may also have hidden tabs for leave and workers, cell comments and properties such as the author, all of which travel with an uploaded file.

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

The same document on Ermos

Part of AI data leakage in NDIS services.

Common questions