Privacy

When you send a voice message to a channel or a person, we store the audio of that message. In Live mode, what you say plays to the people in the channel as you speak, and it is stored as a message too.

We also keep who sent each message, who heard it and when. We keep your name and work email from Microsoft 365, and whether you are live or paused.

Files and pictures you paste or drop into a conversation are stored encrypted with your company's own key and kept for the same time as the messages. Our own server checks each one for viruses before anyone can open it. A picture is shown as a fresh copy our server makes; the original file is only ever downloaded.

We do not record your phone calls or your Teams calls. To pause the app during a call, we only learn that a call is in progress, from your desk phone system and Microsoft 365. The microphone opens when you hold the talk key, or when you switch on open mic with a headset.

If your company connects them, we check your Teams status (in a call, in a meeting, presenting or Do not disturb) every few seconds, and whether your desk phone extension is on a call or ringing. On Windows, the app can also see that another app is using your microphone, but not which app or what it hears. We keep only whether you are paused right now and why, and a record of those changes for 24 hours. We keep no history of your Teams status or your calls. Your teammates can see that you are paused and why, for example "desk phone".

Your teammates (never guests) can also see when you are away from your PC, and since when, for example "away since 12:57pm". On Windows the app tells your company when your PC is locked, asleep, or has had no keyboard or mouse use for 10 minutes; if your company connects Microsoft 365, a Teams status of Away, Be right back or Offline counts too. We keep only whether you are away right now and since when, and delete it as soon as you are back. We keep no history of it.

Every voice message is transcribed to text on our own server, so you can read a message instead of playing it. The text is searchable by the people in that conversation, and is kept for the same time as the audio.

If a message sounds like it contains a password or a card number, the text version hides it and the sender is told. Please do not read these out.

One-line previews and catch-up summaries made by AI are switched off for live companies. If they are switched on, they will only use a provider that processes in Australia, and we will update this page and tell company owners first.

The same applies to two AI features that are built but not running for live companies yet. A long voice message can get a short summary, always labelled "Summary by AI", and each person chooses whether they see the words or the summary. When a message names one of 180 Degrees IT's clients, the AI can suggest a fact for that client's notes, and nothing is sent unless an owner or admin approves it. People's names are replaced before any text reaches the AI. For 180 Degrees IT's own team only, the names of its clients and their contacts are copied from its PSA, stored encrypted, so the text version spells them right; their emails and phone numbers are never kept. Summaries and suggested facts are deleted with their message, and a rejected fact is deleted after 30 days.

You can unsend any message you sent, at any time. Everyone in the conversation then sees "Message unsent" in its place, and it is removed from search and notifications straight away. A copy of the original is kept, encrypted with your company's own key, in your company's unsent log. Your company's owner can open the original of a message they sent or received; nobody else in your company can. 180 Degrees IT can open one only while a legal hold covers it (or, for 180 Degrees IT's own team, its platform administrator). In a family company nobody can open them. Every opening is recorded and shows in your company's activity. That copy is deleted when your company's retention period would have deleted the message, unless a legal hold applies.

"Delete for me" hides a message from you only. Nobody else sees a change.

Audio, text and search data are stored on a 180 Degrees IT server in Australia. Transcription runs on that same server, so your audio is not sent to an outside transcription service.

Everything is encrypted while it travels and while it is stored. The keys that lock it are held separately, in Microsoft Azure Key Vault in Australia East.

Only the people in a conversation can hear and read it. Company owners can see activity, such as who sent a message and when. They cannot hear or read conversations they are not part of.

Guests, such as contractors, see only the channels they were added to, and their access ends on the date the owner set. No screen in BrightMesh Talk lets 180 Degrees IT staff read your company's conversations.

An owner or admin can connect another system, such as your PSA or Zapier, with an API key or a webhook. That system then reads, or is sent, the messages and text versions of the conversations the person who connected it is in, and no others. It stops when that person is no longer an owner or admin. Every key and webhook added or removed is recorded in Activity.

When your company's owner connects Microsoft 365, a Microsoft 365 admin approves BrightMesh Talk reading your organisation's user list. Microsoft calls this permission User.Read.All. We use it for one thing: so everyone at your company can find each other in the people list, including colleagues who have not joined yet.

From each account we read only the name, the work email, whether the account is switched on, and whether it is a staff member or a guest. We do not read anyone's mail, files, calendar, job title or manager.

Profile photos are off unless your company's owner turns on "Show Microsoft 365 photos". Then we copy each colleague's small profile photo, stored encrypted with your company's own key, so it shows beside their name. Guests never see photos. When the owner turns photos off, or someone leaves, their photos are deleted.

Guests, such as people from other companies invited into your Microsoft 365, are never copied and never listed. Accounts that are switched off are never copied either.

We check for changes every 6 hours, and straight away when the owner first connects.

Names and work emails are stored encrypted with your company's own key, on our server in Australia. Only people at your company can see the list. People who have not joined can't be called or messaged, and their email is never shown in the list.

When someone's account is deleted or switched off in Microsoft 365, they are removed from the list at the next check. If they had joined, they are signed out and removed from your company in BrightMesh Talk. If your company stops using BrightMesh Talk, the whole list is deleted with the company's other data.

The Windows app checks for updates from downloads.brightmesh.ai and only installs updates signed by 180 Degrees IT. New versions reach a small group first and everyone else once they have proved themselves. Your company's owner chooses which group (alpha, beta or stable) each person is in. Everyone starts on stable.

While you are signed in, the app tells our server which version it is running, which group it is in, and when it last checked in, so your owner can see who is up to date. It sends nothing about your PC's files or other apps.

Before anyone can use the microphone, BrightMesh Talk shows a plain notice that says voice messages are recorded, turned into text and shared with the people in the conversation. You confirm it, and we save which version you confirmed and when.

When a company sets up BrightMesh Talk, its owner confirms the company has told its staff in writing that voice messages are recorded. Some states, such as NSW and the ACT, require written notice to staff before this kind of monitoring starts. We give owners a staff notice template to help with that.

We do not create voiceprints, identify people by the sound of their voice, or analyse emotion. When someone says a teammate's name to tag them, we match the name in the text against the members of that channel.

• 180 Degrees IT Solutions runs BrightMesh Talk and the server it sits on, in Australia.
• Microsoft provides sign-in, presence (whether you are on a Teams call), your company's user list when your owner connects it, and Azure Key Vault.
• Apple, Google and your browser's push service deliver notifications. They carry only encrypted content that your own device can open.
• Cloudflare and GitHub host our feedback inbox, which is outside Australia. It receives what you type into the feedback button, the page you were on, and technical details when the web app hits an error. It never receives voice messages or transcripts. Please do not put customer details in feedback.

Errors in the server are reported to our own error-tracking server. Audio and transcripts are never attached to them.

You can download your own messages and delete any message you sent from inside the app. To ask for a copy of other personal information we hold about you, to correct it, or to ask us to delete it, email us. We reply within 30 days.

If you are not happy with our reply, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).

Your employer decides who is in BrightMesh Talk and how long messages are kept, within the limits above.

Email privacy@180degreesit.com with any question about this policy or your information.