Capstone: Your Personal AI Safety Checkup

You have learned what not to share, how to control your data, how to spot AI scams, how to lock down your accounts, and how to protect your family. Now you put it into action. This capstone is a hands-on checkup you run on your own setup today. It takes about twenty minutes and it is the most useful thing in this course.

Work through the four parts in order. Tick each box as you finish. By the end you will have a genuinely safer AI life, not just knowledge about one.

What You'll Do

• Audit your privacy settings across your AI tools
• Lock down your accounts
• Practice spotting a scam with a real exercise
• Set up your family defenses

Part 1: Privacy settings audit

Go tool by tool. Only do the ones you actually use.

• ChatGPT: Settings, then Data Controls, then turn off "Improve the model for everyone." Note where Temporary Chat lives.
• Gemini: go to myactivity.google.com/product/gemini, turn off "Keep Activity," and shorten Auto-delete.
• Claude: Settings, then Privacy, then turn off "Help improve Claude." Note where Incognito lives.
• Delete old sensitive chats. Scroll your history and remove any conversation that holds personal or work details.

Remember, these menus move. If a label is different, look for "data," "privacy," "activity," or "improve the model."

Part 2: Account lockdown

• Turn on two-step verification for each AI tool and, most importantly, for the email account tied to them.
• Set a unique password for each, stored in a password manager.
• Review connected apps in your Google, Apple, or Microsoft account and remove any you do not recognize.
• Review browser extensions and remove any you do not use, especially ones that can read all your data.

Part 3: Spot-the-scam practice

Reading about scams is not the same as catching one. Do this exercise to build the reflex. Open any AI chatbot and paste this prompt.

You are a fraud-awareness coach. Write four short messages that copy real AI-era scams aimed at everyday people: one voice-clone family emergency, one deepfake celebrity investment ad, one AI-written phishing text pretending to be my bank, and one fake AI app offer. After each message, on a new line, list the red flags I should have noticed. Keep it simple and realistic.

Read what it produces. For each example, cover the red-flag list and try to name the warning signs yourself first. You are training the pause-and-verify reflex from Lessons 4 and 5.

Now try a personal version. Paste this and answer it honestly for yourself.

Act as a personal safety reviewer. Ask me five short questions, one at a time, to check whether I am handling AI safely: what I paste into chatbots, whether training is off, whether two-step verification is on, whether I have a family safe word, and how I react to urgent money messages. After my answers, give me a short, kind action list of what to fix first.

This turns everything in the course into a plan built around your real habits.

Part 4: Family defenses

• Agree a family safe word in person. Make it random, not a name or birthday. Teach it to kids and older relatives.
• Share the golden rule: any call or message about money gets verified by hanging up and calling back on a saved number.
• Help one relative who is less confident with technology turn on two-step verification.
• Talk about it once out loud. A single five-minute family conversation is worth more than any setting.

Your finished checklist

If you have ticked every box, you are now safer with AI than the vast majority of users. None of it was technical. It was awareness plus a handful of small habits.

Keep it fresh

Safety is not one and done. Put a reminder in your calendar every few months to redo the quick parts: check your privacy toggles still hold after app updates, review connected apps and extensions, and remind the family about the safe word. AI tools and scams both change fast. A short refresh keeps you ahead.

You have finished the lessons. Take the final exam to lock in what you learned and earn your free certificate.

Key Takeaways

• Run the checkup in four parts: privacy settings, account lockdown, scam practice, and family defenses.
• Use the two prompts to practice spotting scams and to build a personal fix-it plan around your real habits.
• Ticking every box makes you safer than most AI users, with no technical skill required.
• Safety fades as apps update and scams evolve. Schedule a short refresh every few months.