This article explains what Automize keeps, where, and for how long. It also shows the settings that decide what your bots may send to us. Everything here can be checked in Settings › Privacy and data.
1. Where your data is kept
Everything Automize holds is on Amazon Web Services in Ireland (eu-west-1, Dublin), and nowhere else. It is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2 or later) and at rest (AES-256).
There are two places your data can be:
- On the machine where a bot runs. This is your PC, laptop, server or virtual desktop. The bot opens your files, reads your screens and types into your systems there. Its full local log stays there too.
- On the Automize platform. Your process definitions, forms, documents, wikis, queues, boards and cases, the run history and execution logs, and whatever your privacy settings allow a bot to send (see below).
2. Who is responsible for what
You are the controller: you decide what data is processed, why, and who may see it. Automize is your processor: we hold and process data on the platform on your behalf, under your instructions and our data processing agreement. You stay responsible for the machines your bots run on.
3. What a bot sends to Automize
A bot sends its run results and execution log. What else it may send is set by an administrator in Settings › Privacy and data › Bot privacy. Each bot also has its own privacy settings, and the stricter of the two always wins. A machine can be made stricter than the company, never looser.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Screenshot when a step fails | Blurred | A picture of the screen when a step fails. Blurred pixelates the screen on the machine before it is sent and keeps one area sharp: a pop-up, the control that failed, or the mouse pointer. You can choose Full screen or Off. |
| Step thumbnails | On | The small picture of a control shown against each step in the designer. It is taken once and can show what was in the field. |
| Screenshots on request | On | Lets an operator ask a machine for a picture of its whole screen, from the bot page or the debugger. |
| Show values in the debugger | On | Off shows variable names only while you step through a process. Values marked sensitive are hidden either way. |
| Read documents (OCR) | System default | Where scanned documents are read. On the machine only never sends a document off the machine. AWS Textract (Ireland) reads it with our service in Ireland. |
| Hide personal details from Automize AI | On | ID numbers, card and bank numbers, phone numbers and email addresses are swapped for placeholders before text goes to an AI provider, and put back in the answer. Names are not detected. |
| Send suggested answers for approval | Off | When a bot stops for someone to approve, it sends the values it would use so the approver can check them. Only the fields the designer chose, never sensitive ones. |
| Send what was on screen when a step fails | Off | Sends the ids and types of the controls near the one the bot could not find, so a better fix can be suggested. Never the text on the screen or what was typed. Kept 90 days. |
| Keep a copy of the page when a browser step fails | Off | Sends a picture of the web page and the labels on it, so someone can click the right element without opening the website again. Typed values are not sent. Kept 90 days. |
Two more things are off until an administrator switches them on, also under Privacy and data:
- Help fix document reading sends Automize a copy of an invoice, credit note or supplier statement a bot could not read, so we can improve reading. Copies are kept 90 days.
- Cases keeps what your bots read from emails and documents, so your team can see what is missing. It keeps the values, never the files.
When you mark a step or variable as sensitive in the designer, its values are replaced with [REDACTED:sensitive] in the execution log, run errors and the debugger, on the machine as well as on the server. A sensitive step also takes no thumbnail and no failure screenshot. Passwords, one-time codes and variables whose names look like a secret or an ID number are marked for you. This needs bot 6.7.5 or later.
4. Credentials
When you add a credential you choose where the password lives:
- Bot local keychain: the password stays in the machine's own keychain (Windows Credential Manager, macOS Keychain). Automize never sees it. For a one-time code (TOTP) the bot also makes the code itself.
- Automize vault: the password is encrypted and kept on the platform in Ireland, and handed only to your own bots when a step needs it. Every lookup is recorded in Settings › Audit › Credential access log.
Connections that sign in with OAuth (Xero, Microsoft 365 and similar) are held encrypted on the platform and used by the platform. They are never sent to a bot.
5. How long things are kept
| What | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Execution logs from bots | 365 days, unless your plan says otherwise. Settings › Privacy and data › Data subject requests shows the number for your workspace. |
| Audit trail and credential access log | 12 months |
| Per-request audit log | 30 days |
| Finished queue items and the files they own | 90 days |
| Finished job records (they hold each run's inputs) | 90 days |
| Failure evidence, page copies and document samples | 90 days, and removed within a day of switching the setting off |
| AI usage records | Token counts and costs only, no prompt or document content |
| Form submissions, documents, wikis and process definitions | Until you delete them. Deleted items go to Trash for 30 days first. |
A workspace that asks to be erased is erased after 30 days, so a mistake can still be undone.
6. Requests from the person the data is about
Under GDPR and POPIA a person may ask to see, correct, restrict or erase their data. You answer these as the controller, and Automize gives you the tools:
- Settings › Privacy and data › Data subject requests finds everything held about one person by their reference (for example the ID number your queue uses). From there you can export it, correct it, restrict it or erase it. A restriction stays until you lift it, and the page shows how many are active.
- Settings › My account › Export your data lets any user download a copy of their own personal data.
Data that is only on your bot machines is outside Automize, so it is your own process that covers it.
7. AI and your data
AI only sees what a step sends it, and nothing is used to train models. Personal details are hidden from AI by default (see the table above). If you connect your own AI key, your own agreement with that provider applies.
8. Looking after logs and screenshots on the machine
The bot's own log and any screenshots it keeps locally sit on your machine, under your control. Treat them as you would any business file:
- Run bots under a dedicated account, and limit who can sign in to the machine.
- Turn on full-disk encryption (BitLocker on Windows, FileVault on macOS).
- Choose how long to keep local logs, and clear them on that schedule.
- Where a process handles very sensitive data, set Screenshot when a step fails to Off and mark the steps sensitive.
The security checklist covers the machine in more detail.
9. Seeing who did what
Settings › Audit holds the account activity (every role change, lock, invitation and administrator action, kept 12 months), sign-in activity, the credential access log, and Audit chain integrity, which checks that the audit trails have not been tampered with.
10. If you suspect a breach
Follow your own incident process, and tell us at security@automize.co.za within 24 hours. Say what happened, which systems and data are involved, when you noticed, and what you have done so far. We will help you contain it, give you the logs and evidence we hold, and support any report you must make to a regulator. For privacy questions, write to privacy@automize.co.za.