Agency agreements and AI privacy risk: what a listing agreement gives away in ChatGPT or Claude.

The agency agreement is the contract that appoints the agent to sell, and agents often paste it into ChatGPT or Claude to check that the special conditions are clear or to summarise it for a vendor who is nervous about signing. It holds the vendors’ identities and the identity documents the agency checked, the title details, the price estimate, the commission, the rebates the agent will receive, a health-related request about inspections and the account the proceeds will go to. This page marks every item in a routine NSW sales agency agreement and shows how the same agreement is handled on Ermos inside the agency.

The sales agency agreement

Signed at the start of the listing. NSW Fair Trading says it must contain the terms prescribed by the Property and Stock Agents Regulation 2022 and be signed by the licence holder and the client, with a statement of rebates, discounts and commissions (section 57) and a cooling-off period for residential sales (section 59).

Agency agreement for the sale of residential property
Wattlebird Property · Exclusive agency · 9 October 2026

Client
Property
AgentWattlebird Property, licensee in charge Dianne Karras, Licence No. 00000000 (placeholder)
TermExclusive agency for 60 days, 9 October to 7 December 2026
Method of sale
Estimated selling price
Commission and marketing
Rebates, discounts and commissions
Special conditions
Proceeds and solicitor
Signing

An invented agency agreement. Licence, identity, title and bank details are placeholders. Hover or tap any highlighted item for the analysis; the full list is below.

What leaves the agency

  1. 1
    The vendors and the identity documents checked

    Two full names and the identity documents sighted to verify them. Personal information and an identity fraud kit. An agency that provides the real estate brokering designated service is a reporting entity under the AML/CTF regime from 1 July 2026, and what it records about its customers is then regulated as well. Privacy Act guide.

  2. 2
    The property and title reference

    The address and the lot and plan reference. Both are searchable on public registers and become public when the property is advertised, but the agreement ties them to the people.

  3. 3
    The method and date of sale

    An auction date and place. It will be advertised publicly, so sending it exposes nothing that the campaign will not publish.

  4. 4
    The estimated selling price

    The agent’s written estimate of the likely selling price. Commercial information the vendors rely on and a buyer would pay to see before it is published.

  5. 5
    Commission and marketing costs

    What the vendors will pay the agency and for what. Commercial information about both parties, and part of the terms the agreement sets out.

  6. 6
    The statement of rebates, discounts and commissions

    NSW Fair Trading says the agreement must identify the source and estimated amount of every rebate, discount and commission (section 57). A disclosure the client is entitled to and a third party is not.

  7. 7
    A health-related request about inspections

    Regular hospital treatment for a named person, recorded as a reason to limit inspections. Health information, and sensitive information under the Privacy Act where the Act applies to the agency. Patient data guide.

  8. 8
    The proceeds account and the vendors’ solicitor

    A bank account and a named solicitor. The details payment redirection scams are built from, which is why anything that moves money needs checking by a person. Privacy Act guide.

  9. 9
    Signing, the approved guide and cooling-off

    Who signed and when, when the guide was given and that the cooling-off period applies. NSW Fair Trading says a signed copy must be served within 48 hours of signing (section 55) and the guide given no more than a month before (section 56(1)). A deadline the agency has to meet whoever drafts the text.

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

The same document on Ermos

Ermos Dominion

The document is drafted on a unit in your office, from your own templates and the property file. Every marked item stays on the unit, which keeps working with the internet switched off. Nothing in it is transmitted to an AI provider, so there is no disclosure to analyse: the confidentiality work is the same as for your file server.

Ermos Edge

Your documents, the index and your access boundaries stay on your own instance in an Australian data centre. When a staff member asks for this draft, only their question and the excerpts they are permitted to see go to a named Australian provider, who is contractually barred from keeping the content or training any model on it. Nothing is processed outside Australia.

Frontier Models (ChatGPT, Claude)Ermos EdgeErmos Dominion
Where the document is processedProvider servers, generally offshore on personal plansYour instance in an Australian data centre; answers generated in AustraliaThe unit in your office
Who can read itProvider staff and systems, under policyYour staff, within the boundaries you set. The named Australian provider processes only permitted excerpts, under contract, and keeps nothingYour staff only
Is it keptOn the provider’s termsKept on your instance; the provider is barred from retaining itStays on the unit
Can it train a modelOn consumer tiers, yesNo, by contractOnly your own unit learns from it, on your hardware

Part of AI data leakage in real estate agencies.

Common questions

Do ChatGPT and Claude use the information in a sales agency agreement?
Whatever is pasted from the agreement is sent to the AI company's servers and processed there to produce a reply. As at October 2026, whether a conversation on a personal plan (ChatGPT Free, Plus or Pro; Claude Free, Pro or Max) can be used to train the models depends on a setting each user controls. Business plans (ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, Claude Team and Enterprise) and the developer APIs sit under commercial terms, and OpenAI and Anthropic each say they do not train on that content by default (OpenAI, Anthropic). On either product, the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons can send a whole conversation back for training. This agreement holds the identity documents checked for Ross and Helen Carmody, a price estimate of $1,900,000 to $2,000,000, a 1.7 percent commission and a request to limit inspections because of hospital treatment.
Is it safe to paste a sales agency agreement into ChatGPT or Claude?
No, because the agreement joins identity, money and health in one document. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) recommends in its guidance on commercially available AI products that organisations do not enter personal information, and particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools, because of the significant and complex privacy risks. It ties two named vendors to their identity documents, the lot and plan reference, the proceeds account and their solicitor, and it records regular hospital treatment as the reason for limiting inspections.
Does a ChatGPT Business or Claude Team plan make it safe for a sales agency agreement?
On a personal plan the user cannot choose where conversations are stored or processed. Some business plans let an organisation choose to store data at rest in Australia (OpenAI), which still leaves the content with the AI company. A business plan changes the default on training, but it does not change who receives the content. The OAIC's guidance also tells organisations to review carefully the terms and settings that will apply to their use of any AI product. For this agreement, the vendors' identity documents, the statement of rebates and the proceeds account would still go to the AI company. The agency would still have to decide whether the vendors expect that. Our comparisons with ChatGPT Enterprise and Claude weigh the trade-offs.
How can a real estate agency use AI for a sales agency agreement without sending it to ChatGPT or Claude?
Ermos is built so the document stays under your control. On the Dominion AI unit it is drafted inside your office and none of it is sent to an AI provider. On Ermos Edge your documents and index stay on your own instance in an Australian data centre, and only the question and the excerpts the user is permitted to see go to a named Australian provider that is contractually barred from keeping them or training any model on them. The agreement is drafted from the client file and the agency's own agency agreement template. The licensee in charge checks every term and the statement of rebates against the file, then signs it.
What must a NSW sales agency agreement contain?
NSW Fair Trading says it must contain the terms prescribed by the Property and Stock Agents Regulation 2022, be signed by the licence holder and the client, and include a statement identifying the source and estimated amount of rebates, discounts and commissions. The agent must also give the client the approved guide no more than one month before signing.
Is there a cooling-off period for a residential sale agency agreement?
Yes. NSW Fair Trading points to section 59 of the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 for a cooling-off period on residential sale agency agreements, and section 60 for the notice of rescission. The client can only waive it if the unsigned agreement and the guide were given at least one business day earlier and the client signs the approved waiver form.
Are the vendors' identity documents covered by AML/CTF rules?
AUSTRAC lists brokering the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate as a designated service, with obligations starting on 1 July 2026. An agency that provides that service is a reporting entity and should check what it must record about its customers. Either way, copies of identity documents are personal information that need protecting.

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