Question

Can admins view all email history and search history?


  1. Does Copper admin view all Gmail account emails even personal or just copper contact emails?  2) Does Copper chrome extension reveal search history to admin also? What is full scope of “tracking”?

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11 replies

Userlevel 3
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Thanks for the questions, @Shadow Rider

Your Copper Admin only has access to emails that are sent to your Copper contacts and synced into Copper. Similar to personal emails, please note that emails between Copper users (you and your colleagues) will not sync into your Copper account. 

Our Help Center article on email visibility & permissions may be a good resource for you. 

Copper and our Chrome Extension have nothing to do with your search history, only work that you are logging and syncing into Copper. The Copper Chrome Extension is available to improve your efficiency as you work out of your Gmail Inbox.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions. 

Userlevel 7
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Just a heads up, I adjusted the title of this post so that it’s easier to find in the future.

@Shadow Rider, let us know if Evan’s answer was helpful!

I find this to be quite an alarming security hole in a CRM system. We have board members in Copper (because they’re part of our community) and emails between our execs and those board members can very easily be exposed. 

_Especially_ since basic functionality like adding values to a custom field require admin permission (this makes it so we grant admin permission to more users than we’d prefer because of the security hole).


no doubt copper has great functionality and all of the benefits are listed but full disclosure what is the level of transparency for admin‘s for users other emails in addition to browser since it’s all Google

Userlevel 7
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Hi @parterburn and @Shadow Rider, I’d like to clarify the way our permissions are set up. The short answer is that admins can only see the emails if the Account Owners allow it. The account owner can adjust this setting in Settings > Settings & Templates > Admin Private Email Visibility (Account Owner).

I’ve added a lot of information below if you’re interested in how email visibility works in Copper.

 

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There are three levels of control: individual, admin, and account owner.

Individual Users and Emails

By default, a new user’s emails will all be private. This means that the contents of any emails they send to and from a Copper contact will only be visible to themselves and to other users who were also in the email chain. They will NOT be visible to other users unless they make them public. Other users can see the fact that an email occurred, but cannot see the contents or the subject line.

A user may choose to mark a specific email as public so that their teammates can see it. They can do this by selecting that email in Copper.

They can also choose to mark all their future emails as public. They can do this in Settings > Email Settings & Templates.

Admins can restrict users’ ability to mark their emails public by default.

Note, you can also turn off a user’s Google Sync entirely by going to Settings > Accounts Settings > Company & Invite New Users > Edit User > Uncheck the Google Sync box.

 

Admins

Admins can block or allow users from setting their emails public by default. They can do this in Settings > Email Settings & Templates.

Note, admins cannot force users to make their emails public. They can only give them the option to.

By default, admins can see emails that are private but Account Owners can turn off this option.

 

Account Owners

Account owners can block admins from seeing private emails by going to Settings > Email Settings & Templates.

 

So if you want the highest level of email privacy, use these settings:

  1. Have your Account Owner disable Admin Private Email Visibility
  2. Have your Account Owner or Admin disable Individual Email Visibility Control

Thanks @Michelle from Copper — totally didn’t realize that option was shipped as we were customers before it came out I believe. I’ve raised this issue multiple times over the years with different account reps, and you’ve been the first to give a succinct solution to it!

I also say thank you for your detailed reply. But I did read through that carefully and notice really public is simply Copper's way of saying whether an email is visible to coworkers. The admin decides disability level and no admin is going to not select that. 

I have nothing to hide but my main question is will the admin will just see emails just from accounts that are loaded into Copper or will the admin see all emails (including all of those that aren't account or copper related related) under that email address now and in the past? Another word since Copper is a google product or the admin see all emails including all of those unrelated to copper accounts? Thank you for your thoughtful replies.

My voice recognition isn't always 100% accurate. I said the admin decides disability level.
 

Account Owners

Account owners can block admins from seeing private emails by going to Settings > Email Settings & Templates.

First of all admin's are not gonna make that available and second of all your definition of private emails it's not the same definition of allowing disability of all emails. Private to you means whether your colleagues can see an email. According to this admin's can see all email unless admin's allow users to turn that off and then in that case the admin's can't see your emails, so admin's are not going to do that.

My question is do admin's see all of the emails unrelated to accounts or contacts in Copper? Do admin's have the ability to access all emails in designated email address including all of those that are non-business?  Thanks

Userlevel 7
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will the admin will just see emails just from accounts that are loaded into Copper or will the admin see all emails (including all of those that aren't account or copper related related) under that email address now and in the past?

Admins can only see emails to/from contacts that are loaded into Copper. Copper does not sync emails or other data from contacts that are not in Copper.

 

Another word since Copper is a google product or the admin see all emails including all of those unrelated to copper accounts?

You or your team will need to add someone to Copper in order for the admin to see it.

 

So for example, I might be emailing some family members from my work email. If those family members are not in my Copper system, then the admin cannot see the emails I’ve had with them.

 

According to this admin's can see all email unless admin's allow users to turn that off and then in that case the admin's can't see your emails, so admin's are not going to do that.

Whether admins can see private emails is up to the Account Owner, who is one level above the admins. The decision on how to set that up varies from organization to organization - some Account Owners block admins from seeing it and some don’t.

 

I hope that helps, @Shadow Rider !

Userlevel 7
Badge +7

Thanks @Michelle from Copper — totally didn’t realize that option was shipped as we were customers before it came out I believe. I’ve raised this issue multiple times over the years with different account reps, and you’ve been the first to give a succinct solution to it!

@parterburn Glad I could help!

Sorry to keep pushing but one more question Michelle and thank you for your patience. Oh I'm just not clear on this point. 

All of those options allowing for user to allow admin's to see emails marked as private etc. None of those options are available to me.

Admin Private Email Visibility (Account owner)  Is not a visible option for me.

That makes me think that admin has not enable that as an option for me as a user.

In that case since I don't have any ability to amend admin visibility into emails, are you saying that all emails that go into my work email address can be viewed by Copper admin not just contacts and accounts that are uploaded into Copper. Thanks