Security and privacy
Security claims are easy to make. This page says what is protected, by whom, and where, for each way of running TacitDesk.
The transport
Messages travel through Threema, a Swiss messenger with open-source apps, independent audits and no requirement for a phone number. Between your customer's phone and the TacitDesk server the content is end-to-end encrypted with keys Threema does not hold. Threema sees that a message was sent and to whom, not what it says.
Turnkey
We hold the key
Messages are decrypted on TacitDesk servers in the EU and Switzerland so your agents can read them in the dashboard and rules can act on them. That means TacitDesk is technically able to read your customers' messages. We do not sell them, train anything on them, or share them, and a data processing agreement binds us to that. But "we cannot read your messages" would not be true, so we do not say it.
Self-hosted
You hold the key
The same software runs on your hardware with a key only you hold. Messages are decrypted there and nowhere else. TacitDesk installs and maintains the software under a maintenance agreement, with access only when you grant it, logged and time-limited. We cannot read your messages, and neither can anyone who compels us. You can inspect the software you run.
The AI assistant
When you turn the assistant on, the text of a conversation is sent to the model provider to generate a reply, under terms that forbid training on it and with no retention beyond the request. In the self-hosted model that call leaves from your network with your own provider account. The assistant is off by default, always identifies itself as automated, and every reply is kept for your team to review.
Jurisdiction, stated plainly
TacitDesk is an Australian company. Turnkey data is stored in the EU and Switzerland and we act as your processor under the GDPR and the Swiss data protection act, with standard contractual clauses covering our own access from Australia. Australian law, including the Assistance and Access Act, applies to us as a provider. For turnkey customers that is a reason to read the paragraph above honestly; for customers who cannot accept it, the self-hosted model exists.
Operational basics
- One key per customer desk, held in a managed key store, exportable to you if you leave or move to self-hosted.
- Two-factor authentication on every dashboard account; single sign-on on request.
- Retention you set, with legal hold where you need it, and deletion that means deletion.
- Audit log of who read and did what, exportable.
- Breach notification within the GDPR's 72 hours and under Australia's notifiable data breaches scheme.
- A published list of sub-processors (Threema GmbH and, if you enable the assistant, the model provider) with notice before changes.
Questions a security review would ask are welcome. Write to us and you will get an answer from the people who built it.