Paste into AI apps without sharing your details

Updated October 2026

Asking an AI app for help usually means pasting something real: a customer email, a log file, an invoice, a block of code with a key in it. Most of the time the question doesn’t need the address, the phone number or the key. Here is how to keep those details out of what you send, and how Pocketry can do part of it for you.

Check before you paste

Read the text once. Names, street addresses and company names are easy to miss, and no tool finds all of them, including the optional name masking.
Look for keys, tokens, passwords and card numbers. Delete them, or swap them for a stand-in such as [API_KEY].
Paste just the part that matters. Three lines of a log are often enough.
Check the AI app’s settings for whether your chats are kept or used for training. What it does with your text is up to that app.

Swap details for placeholders

Doing the swap by hand works, but it is slow and easy to forget. Safe Paste in Pocketry does it when you paste. It recognises emails, phone numbers, card numbers, bank accounts, ID numbers, keys and passwords, login codes and long numbers, and replaces each with a placeholder like [EMAIL_1]. The same value always gets the same placeholder, so the AI can still tell people apart.

Turn it on for an AI app when Pocketry asks, or hold ⌥ while pressing Return to paste masked in any app, including a web page.
A small note shows what was covered, such as “Masked 2 emails, 1 card number”, with buttons to replace the paste with the original or copy the original instead.
When the AI answers, copy its reply and click Restore in the small panel that appears (or choose Restore from the entry’s right-click menu) to put the real details back. A setting can do it automatically.

Screenshots work too: the text in the picture is read on your Mac and the details it recognises are covered with solid boxes before the picture is pasted.

What it doesn’t catch

Safe Paste masks what it has patterns for. Names are off by default; the optional “Also mask names” setting finds many but not all, and can mask an everyday word that is also a name. It does not recognise street addresses, company names or a secret written in an unusual way, so look at what you’re about to send. If the AI rewrites a placeholder (“email 1”), Restore can’t match it.

Where the details go

The list that remembers which placeholder stands for which value stays in your Mac’s memory. It is never written to disk, added to your history, sent anywhere or included in a problem report, and it is forgotten after a few hours, when your Mac sleeps or locks, and when you quit. Masking text uses no network connection. The one thing Pocketry connects to a server for is the optional update check, which sends just the app version. You can check this yourself on the verify page.

Common questions

Can I stop an AI app seeing my email address or card number when I paste?

Not by itself. You can delete or replace the details before you paste, or use a tool that swaps them for placeholders on the way in. Safe Paste in Pocketry does that for the details it recognises, and restores them when you copy the answer back.

Does Safe Paste find names and addresses?

Not by default. It masks emails, phone numbers, card numbers, bank accounts, ID numbers, keys and passwords, login codes and long numbers. Names are optional: you can turn on “Also mask names” in Settings, which uses Apple’s language tools on your Mac, finds many but not all names and can mask an everyday word that is also a name. Street addresses and company names are not recognised, so read what you are about to send.

Does masking use the internet?

Masking text is pattern matching on your Mac and uses no network connection. The list of placeholders is kept in memory and forgotten after a few hours, when the Mac sleeps or locks, and on quit.

Try Pocketry free for 14 days · then $12 once, no subscription.