Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture that may be used to prevent sensitive information from being divulged in an annotation are provided. Upon creation, modification and/or retrieval of an annotation, a set of predefined security rules may be applied to the annotation, in an effort to detect sensitive information contained therein. Upon detecting sensitive information in an annotation, appropriate security measures may be taken, such as notifying a user creating, modifying, or retrieving the annotation (e.g., prompting the user to modify annotation to remove the sensitive information), preventing entry of the annotation, and/or notifying appropriate personnel in charge of security, such as a system administrator.