The Job Card said what Grok must never decide. This lesson is what it must never hold, and who is allowed to sound like you. Grok is a clerk. It is not a vault. It is not your voice.
Why this matters
People treat a chat like a locked drawer. They paste a counseling note, a student’s name and grade, a buyer’s Social, a vendor password. The useful reply now lives in a thread they will share, screenshot, or leave on a shop computer.
The other leak is voice. A church secretary sends “as a family of faith we are so excited.” A teacher sends “I am so proud of your child’s amazing growth.” A shop owner sends “we value your partnership.” Readers think you said it. That is a signature problem.
You need a never-store list for this desk, and a voice rail: Grok drafts, you own the first sentence, you send, “I” is you or it is a lie. A workplace records rule still wins.
Teach
Never-store does not go in a thread, Project, Memory, Custom Instructions, or a screenshot you might forward.
Core (every desk)
- Passwords, PINs, badge codes, keys.
- Social Security numbers, license numbers, full account or card numbers.
- Medical, therapy, or counseling notes you would not pin in a hallway.
- Personnel actions, unpublished complaints.
- Anything that identifies a minor with a grade, diagnosis, or address.
- Anything you would not leave on a shared computer overnight.
Desk-specific (you will add these)
- Realtor: buyer Social or DOB; a confidential offer; a lockbox code.
- Cook: a guest’s medical detail beyond the ticket abbreviation; a supplier login.
- County clerk: sealed file content; a filer’s SSN; anything the office treats as non-public.
- Teacher: student legal names with unpublished grades; IEPs; a parent number you will project.
- Student: a classmate’s paper; a login; an unpublished exam.
- Shop owner: employee Socials; the alarm code; a customer’s card number.
- Church secretary: pastoral-care notes; giving records; a member request that is not a public announcement.
Stand-ins: BUYER_A, STUDENT_1, MEMBER_R, NEED lockbox — not in this thread. The real value stays in the listing sheet, the SIS, the church database, the POS, the paper file.
If the instance is too hot even redacted, stop. Same job, cooler instance — or headings only: “Item is personnel — see the HR folder.” The model does not need the body.
What you may paste. Roles. Facts already on a flyer. The assignment sheet. Published listing remarks. Public bulletin items. A redacted two-line summary. When in doubt, shorten.
Voice rails
Grok drafts. I send.
I rewrite the first sentence before anything leaves.
"I" in a draft is me, or the line is cut.
No slogans. No fake warmth. No "as a community / family / team we…"
No signature but mine (or the function that actually signs).
If I cannot tell it was mine, it is not ready.
Do not ask Grok to “sound more like me.” That produces a costume. Ask it to be shorter, to put the ask first, and to leave blanks. You are the voice. The clerk is the scissors.
Two-voice test. Print the draft twice: model-voice (the version it wants to send) and clerk-voice (card + never-store + rails). Mark the lines you would not read aloud as yourself. Rewrite only the first sentence with your own fingers. If that sentence is still the model’s, you are not done.
Memory. A later instruction can remind never-store and voice. It cannot hold a parishioner, a student, or a lockbox. This lesson does not require Settings. A paste can outlive the thread. If you are unsure, it stays out.
Worked example
A church secretary. Job: Sunday bulletin announcements.
Never-store she already knew: giving totals, pastoral-care names, a hospital room, the alarm.
What she almost pasted: a pastor’s email that named a family in counseling and asked for “a tasteful mention that they need meals.” Care note, not a bulletin item. She typed: “Meals for a household. Public name: not yet. Sign-up: office phone already on the bulletin.”
Model-voice: “As a church family we lift up the Johnsons; God is so good; meals sign up below.” Violations: a last name she had not released, stolen first-person plural, a theological line the pastor did not ask a clerk to write.
Clerk-voice: “Meals: sign up with the office this week.” NEED: public name, dates, whether the pastor wants a prayer-list line. She rewrote the first sentence: “Office is taking meal sign-ups this week — call the number on the back.” She sent that.
A teacher’s hour: never-store = last names + unpublished scores. Model-voice praised “Emma’s amazing 94%.” Clerk-voice used “Student A,” no number. The grade never entered the thread.
Your turn
Open grok.com. New thread named privacy-voice — [job]. Bring the Job Card and the After (redact harder if you need to). If the After is too hot, bring headings only.
Exercise d-any-l03-e1
| Field | Value |
|---|
| whereToDo | grok.com |
| time | 22 min |
Copy-ready prompts
Message 1:
I am in Grok Mastery (Russell Tech), Pathway D, Any desk, lesson 3 — privacy and voice.
Interview me with exactly six short questions, one at a time:
1) The job name from my card
2) What I almost pasted into a model this week (describe, do not paste the secret)
3) People this desk touches (roles, not names): customers, students, members, filers, guests, crew
4) What my workplace or I already treat as off-limits
5) Who is allowed to sound like me in public
6) A slogan or fake-warm line I refuse to send
Then write a Privacy and Voice Card:
- Never-store (core + desk-specific; no real secrets written out)
- Stand-ins I will use
- If too hot: what I type instead of a paste
- Voice rails (the six lines from this lesson, in my words)
- First-sentence rule
- NEED
Do not invent a law or a FERPA lecture. Stop before the two-voice test.
Message 2:
Two-voice test. Here is a redacted draft or the After from my cycle:
[paste redacted After, or headings only]
Print:
1) Model-voice — the version you would have sent if I had asked you to "make it nice"
2) Clerk-voice — obey the Privacy and Voice Card; leave blanks; no stolen "I"
3) Leak table: line, leak class (secret / identity / dollars / voice theft / none), action (cut / stand-in / keep)
Do not put back any fact I did not give.
Wait for me to rewrite the first sentence.
Message 3 (after you type your first sentence):
First sentence I will actually use:
[your sentence]
Reprint clerk-voice with that first sentence only as the opening.
Session stamp: today's date and "Privacy and voice card written by Grok in this thread."
Artifact to paste
- The Privacy and Voice Card (never-store, stand-ins, voice rails, NEED).
- The two-voice test and the leak table.
- Your first sentence and the reprinted clerk-voice.
- The session stamp.
- One line from you:
I did not paste: plus the class of thing you kept out (not the secret itself).
Rubric
- Pass: Card is Grok-authored and stamped. Never-store has core plus at least two desk-specific lines. Two-voice test exists. You wrote the first sentence. Leak table names a cut or a stand-in. No raw secret in the thread you submit.
- Fail: “Don’t share private stuff” as the whole card. You typed it offline. You pasted a password, SSN, student record, giving record, or medical note. You accepted model-voice as ready to send. No stamp. Grok signed your name.
Common failure
The common failure is the hallway test you skip. If you would not pin it by the coffee pot, it does not go in the model. “But I need context” is how lockbox codes and last names arrive.
The other failure is asking Grok to be you. More warmth, a prayer, a joke. You now have a costume. Shorten. Put the ask first. Write the first sentence with your own hands.
What’s next
You have rails for facts and for voice. Capstone: one week of the named job, a Friday review, and a reusable card you will open again.
