Clear Path step · Home · AI that works on your terms
Review what your AI can reach
Why it matters: When an assistant reads your email, files or the web, hidden instructions written by a stranger can steer it. The less it can reach, the less a hijacked assistant can do.
On your path if you picked “Connected to email, files or calendar” or “Agents that book, buy or act for us” for “How does your household use AI?”.
Best after: Check what your AI assistants keep, learn and remember
Do it
- Open each assistant's connected apps, connectors or extensions page.
- Disconnect anything you haven't used in the past month.
- Prefer read-only access to email and files unless you truly need the AI to send or edit.
- Also check the other side: in your Google, Microsoft or Apple account, review third-party apps with access and remove AI tools you no longer use.
- Be cautious with browser extensions that offer AI features; they can see every page you visit.
Check it worked: Each assistant is connected only to the apps and accounts you actively use with it, and access to email, files and calendars is read-only where possible.
Simply put
Each connection is like a spare key you lent an assistant. The fewer keys it holds, and the more of them are 'look but don't touch', the less a tricked assistant can do.
In detail
Each connector is a standing permission held by software, a 'non-human identity' that doesn't expire when you stop using it. Standards like the Model Context Protocol make connecting easy, which makes pruning a routine, not a one-off.
Points toward the Long View: assistants that reach only what you use, pruned as a routine.