Privacy and immigration-status protection
What clients should never type into any AI tool, how LINC handles data, and how to give honest reassurance that is neither falsely comforting nor needlessly frightening.
Learning objectives
By the end of this module, the CHW can:
- List what a client should never enter into an AI tool.
- Explain, in plain words, how LINC handles what a client types or uploads.
- Coach a client to cover names and ID numbers before sharing a document photo.
- Give calibrated reassurance: honest about protections and honest about limits.
Facilitator outline
For clients living with immigration precarity, privacy is not abstract. Name that plainly and set a calm, respectful tone.
Immigration status, A-numbers and case numbers, Social Security numbers, full legal name tied to sensitive details, and exact home address. Ask general questions instead of ones that identify the person.
Walk the transparency guide: what LINC does and does not do with a message or an uploaded photo. Be precise, and do not promise more than the guide states.
Cover names and ID numbers before photographing an intake form or insurance letter. Show how to crop or place a finger over identifiers. Ask the AI only what the client needs to understand.
Run the role-play below. Practice honest, calibrated reassurance and concrete protective steps. Close with a teach-back.
Key teaching points
Start from respect for the client's caution. Many clients are right to be careful about where their information goes, and the job here is to channel that caution into specific, workable rules rather than to talk them out of it. The core rule is simple: do not enter anything that identifies you or your status. Ask "how do I find a therapist who takes Medicaid" rather than typing a name, a case number, or a status. When a client needs help reading a document, a photo can be useful, but names and ID numbers should be covered first.
When you describe how LINC handles data, stay exact. Use the transparency guide's wording and do not improvise stronger promises. Calibrated reassurance sounds like this: "LINC does not save your photo, does not use it to train AI, and does not share it with immigration authorities. Even so, cover your name and any ID numbers first, because that is the safest habit anywhere." That is honest about the protection and honest about the limit. Avoid both failure modes: false comfort that oversells safety, and vague fear that leaves the client too scared to use a tool that could help them reach care.
Onboarding that is upfront about a tool's limits is an evidence-backed way to prevent people from over-relying on it (Passi and Vorvoreanu, 2022). Being specific about what LINC does and does not do with data serves the same purpose: it builds trust that is grounded rather than blind, which is exactly the calibrated trust taught in Module 2.
Machine translation can quietly drop safety content. When an AI "simplified" a Korean consent form, readability improved but the quality of risk disclosure fell significantly (Oh and colleagues, 2025). After any translation, a person confirms the warnings survived.
Privacy fear is rational. Immigration enforcement chills care even for people who are lawfully present (Herring and Barnow, 2025). Lead with a plain statement of the facts before asking anything.
Role-play: the client who fears data sharing
Pair up. One CHW plays a client who is anxious that anything typed into the chatbot could reach immigration authorities; the other coaches. The client opens with:
The coach's task is to acknowledge the concern as reasonable, state the actual protections in the transparency guide's words, and give two or three concrete rules the client controls: ask general questions, never enter status or ID numbers, cover identifiers on any photo. Good facilitation leaves the client both safer and still able to use the tool. Harmful moves to flag in debrief: promising total safety, or dismissing the fear so the client disengages entirely.
Materials
- How LINC uses AITransparency
- Your privacy and medical recordsGuide
- Care and your immigration statusGuide
- Confidentiality and what is reportedGuide
- Did I use the transparency guide's exact wording instead of inventing stronger promises?
- Did the client leave with concrete rules they control, not just reassurance?
- Did I avoid both false comfort and needless fear?