Security and privacy

Who sees what

Results show only when 5 or more people answer.

The floor counts answers, not team size. A team shows only once 5 or more have answered, and each question only once 5 or more have answered it.

Nobody sees

Who answered what
Any result from fewer than 5 people
Names on who has or hasn't answered

The defaults

Your company sets the privacy rules, each with a reason. Employees are always told what each one means, before they answer.

Group size floor: 5Can be raised, never below 5. Lowering a raised number needs a reason and 7 days' notice to everyone.A team below 5 rolls up into the team above it.
Who sees results: HR and named leaders see every team with 5 or more answers. Each manager sees only their own team. Employees see no team scores.
Word-for-word written answers: Themes only by default. Word-for-word answers are a company setting, off unless turned on, and employees see a notice before they write.
Quote rules: No quotes while word for word is off. When it is on, quotes show only for groups of 5 or more, never with a name, and never with the label of a team below 5.

Your answers

Kept for the group, never for one.

Answers are saved without your name or ID, and mixed together when the survey closes. A separate note that you answered stops your reminders and lets you answer once; your company never sees it.

CSV exports hold team totals only, never one person's answers.

Gists AI staff never see who wrote what.

Questions marked optional can be skipped. You can also leave a survey unanswered. Nobody is told. What you answered stays in team results, which never show who you are.

If your company cancels, or its trial ends without a plan, its results stay readable for 30 days, and its admins can download all of its data in one file. Then everything it has in Gists AI is deleted: surveys, answers, results, people, teams, settings and connections. We email its admins 7 days before, and again when it's done. Backups clear within two weeks after the deletion. We keep only a record that it happened (the company's id and the date, no names). Invoices stay with Stripe, as tax law requires.

An HR admin can download all of the company's data in one file from Settings: people, teams, privacy settings and their history, and each survey's questions, results, briefs and reports. Results come out as they do in the app: nothing from fewer people than the group size floor, and no one's answers next to their name. The link goes by email to the admin who asked, works for 24 hours, and the file is deleted after 7 days. Anyone can download their own data from Gists AI, next to Delete all my data: their profile, connections, settings, consent and notice history, their check-ins, and which surveys were sent to them. Survey answers are not in it: they are stored without names, so nobody can pick out one person's answers, not HR, not Gists AI and not the person who wrote them.

Delete all my data removes your check-ins and anything made from them. It can't remove survey answers: they're saved without your name, so nobody can find which ones are yours. Questions about your data? Write to support@gists.ai.

For IT and legal

What your IT team will ask.

Area	How it works
Sign-in and access	Sign in with Slack, Google or an email code. Single sign-on (SAML or OIDC) for your company's domain. Access by role: HR admins, named leaders read-only, each manager their own team only.
Audit log	Every view of results is logged.
Slack	Never reads channels, conversations between people, or files. See every Slack permission
Data region	Data is stored with Google Cloud in the United States. SCCs, UK Addendum and Swiss terms are in the DPA. Need data stored outside the United States? Write to support@gists.ai.
Encryption	Encrypted in transit and at rest.
Breach notice	We tell you within 72 hours of learning of a breach.
Subprocessors	We email you at least 30 days before adding or replacing a subprocessor, and you may object. Subprocessors (region, notice)
Uptime	No uptime commitment (SLA) during beta. Uptime checks and alerts run all day.
SOC 2	SOC 2 in progress.
AI	AI is optional. Surveys, results and team trends work without it. When AI is on, written answers are summarized into themes by Google Gemini, or the AI provider your company chose. Answers are never used to train AI.
Questionnaire	Have a security questionnaire? Send it to support@gists.ai and a founder fills it in.
Security contact	Security or privacy question? support@gists.ai with 'Security' in the subject. A founder replies within one business day.

The paperwork

DPA (signed by us) Subprocessors Terms Privacy Policy

Download the pack for finance, IT and legal (PDF)

Security overview, DPA signed by us, subprocessors, Slack permissions, Terms, Privacy Policy, price for your headcount.

Slack permissions

What Gists AI asks Slack for.

Send messagesSurvey questions, and a short post after each survey about what changed.

chat:writeSend each survey, and a short post after each survey about what changed.

chat:write.publicPost in the public channel you pick, without inviting the app first.

chat:write.customizeSend reminders under the Gists AI name and icon.

im:writeOpen each person's private message with Gists AI.

commandsThe /survey command.

channels:readList public channel names so you can pick where the post goes. Names only.

groups:readList private channels Gists AI was invited to, for the same picker. Names only.

See names and emailsTo match people to their team.

users:readNames and time zones, so questions arrive at a sensible hour.

users:read.emailWork emails, to match each person to their HR record.

team:readYour workspace name, to set up your company.

See user groupsIf you use them for teams.

usergroups:readBuild teams from Slack user groups when no HR system is connected.