Privacy & security
UnTangle is built so that your documents stay where they already are. Everything we do store is kept and processed inside the European Union.
Your document content never leaves your Drive
UnTangle does not copy, cache or store the content of your files. When a folder is indexed, the text excerpts and the search vectors are written back into a hidden application folder inside your own Google Drive (appDataFolder), encrypted with a key derived for your account.
When you ask a question, only the few short excerpts that match your question are sent to the AI model, together with your question. Nothing is retained by the model provider for training, and no conversation state is stored on the provider side.
What we do store — and where
The only data in our own database is the minimum needed to run the app: your account (email and user id), which Drive folder you selected, index status counters, and an encrypted access key for the Drive connection.
That database runs in the European Union and is never replicated outside the EU. Chat history is kept locally in your browser only.
EU hosting
Hosting, database, authentication and file storage all run in the EU. Google Drive access happens directly against Google's API using your own OAuth authorisation, scoped to the folder you pick.
Information sent to the AI may be processed outside the EU but is never kept by the AI provider.
AI providers and sub-processors
Two kinds of AI services help UnTangle answer your questions, both reached through our AI gateway: an answer model that writes the reply, and an embedding model that turns text into search vectors while indexing and searching.
What each one receives: the answer model receives your question plus the few short excerpts that matched it. The embedding model receives the text of the documents in the folder you indexed, in short chunks, while indexing, and your question text when you search.
Retention: requests are sent with conversation storage switched off, so neither provider keeps the content after the response is produced, and no request content is used to train their models. The resulting vectors and excerpts are written only into the hidden application folder in your own Google Drive.
How UnTangle accesses Google Drive
UnTangle never sees your Google password. When you sign in, Google shows a consent screen listing the exact permissions you grant, and then issues UnTangle a Drive access token. That token is scoped to read-only access to your files, plus UnTangle's own hidden application folder — the only place the app may write. It is stored encrypted in our EU database and used for one purpose: reading the folder you selected and keeping the index there up to date.
Access to the Drive connection is bound to your signed-in account, so nobody else — not even another UnTangle user — can read or search your index.
The index is built with the access you had at the time of indexing, and searches run against that saved index. A file that is deleted, moved away or un-shared stays in the index until the next update; "Update index" syncs those away. Searches also re-check the files behind an answer and discard — and clean up — anything you can no longer open.
You can revoke UnTangle's access at any time from your Google account settings, or from inside the app.
Frequently asked questions
Does UnTangle copy or store my documents?+
No. Document content is never stored on UnTangle's servers. When a folder is indexed, the text excerpts and search vectors are written into a hidden application folder inside your own Google Drive, encrypted with a key derived for your account.
Can UnTangle change or delete my files?+
No. The Google permission UnTangle uses to read your documents is read-only, with no write capability at all. The only thing the app can ever write is its own index files, and only into its private hidden folder in your Drive.
Which file types can be indexed?+
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), PDFs and plain text formats such as .txt, .md, .json and .xml. Scanned PDFs are images and need OCR before their text can be read. Files of other types are skipped, and each indexing lists exactly which files were skipped and why.
How does UnTangle work?+
You connect a folder in your Google Drive and UnTangle builds a search index of it — text excerpts and search vectors stored in a hidden application folder inside your own Drive, not on our servers. When you ask a question, UnTangle searches the index for the most relevant passages, sends only those short excerpts to the AI model, and returns an answer with links to the exact files the answer came from.
What can I use UnTangle for?+
Anything where the answer is buried in your own documents: find where a decision was made across hundreds of meeting notes, ask what a project agreed last quarter, summarize a report, or find which file contains a specific number or policy. You ask in plain language instead of guessing file names or keywords, and every answer points back to the exact file it came from. Because access is read-only, you can point it at any folder without risk.
Your GDPR rights
You can access, correct, export or delete your data at any time. Deletion is self-service in the app; for anything else, use the contact form. We respond within 30 days.
Curious about the exact Google permissions? Read how UnTangle reads your Drive, or go back to the start page.