Should you upload your ID or passport to ChatGPT?

People upload a photo of their ID to ask "when does this expire?", "can I travel with it?" or "fill in this form for me". An identity document is the worst file to hand over for those questions: it is built to prove who you are, and a copy of it is what identity fraud starts with.

What is on an ID card or passport

your photo, full name, date and place of birth, sex and nationality;
the document number and its issue and expiry dates;
the machine-readable zone (the two or three lines of letters and chevrons), which repeats most of this in a form any scanner reads;
on some cards, your address, height or a signature.

What the AI needs to answer you

Almost never the document itself. An expiry question needs a date. A travel question needs the type of document and your nationality. A form needs the fields you type into it. Write the question in words, with only the one detail it depends on.

What can go wrong

A clear photo of an ID is enough to open accounts in your name in many services. Chats do not always stay private either: in July 2025 thousands of shared ChatGPT conversations turned up in Google results, and OpenAI removed the option that allowed it (Search Engine Journal). Google, for its part, says a subset of Gemini chats are read by human reviewers and asks users not to enter confidential information they would not want a reviewer to see (Google).

A safe way to ask

Ask without the document: "My passport expires on [DATE]. Can I enter Japan with it in March?"
If you need to paste text that contains ID details, run it through Hide personal data before ChatGPT first: ID numbers and dates of birth become tags.
Send the tagged text and your question.
Paste the answer back in the tool to restore the details, if the answer mentions them.

When not to use an AI at all

Never upload a photo of your ID to a chatbot to "verify" yourself or to fill in an official application. When someone else genuinely needs a copy, such as a landlord or an employer, send it to them directly, with what they do not need blacked out in the Sumi app and a watermark naming the purpose.

Questions

Can I blur my ID photo and upload the rest?

The document number, birth date and machine-readable zone are what matter for fraud, not only the photo. If you must share an image, black those out in the Sumi app first.

Does the tool read photos of IDs?

No, it works on text and PDFs with a text layer. For a photo or scan, use the Sumi app, which reads scans in your browser and blacks out what you choose.

Is a passport different from an ID card here?

Not really. Both carry a document number, birth details and a machine-readable zone. Treat them the same way.

What if a website asks me to upload my ID to an AI assistant?

Ask who processes it and why. A legitimate identity check runs through the service's own verification process, not through a general-purpose chatbot.