An AI assistant is only as safe as the data it is allowed to read. Data filters are the control that decides that. You write the rules once, for the whole company, and they work before the AI reads anything, so a mistake in a question cannot open a folder you closed.

What a data filter does

A filter tells the system which mail and calendar items the AI must ignore. The assistant does not search them, does not open them and cannot summarise or quote them. The filter limits only what the AI receives. People see their mail in Outlook as before.

Four ways to filter

What to hide first

• Folders for HR, payroll, legal and finance approvals.
• Mail from specific senders or domains, such as your lawyer or auditor.
• Messages with agreed words such as “confidential” or “privileged”.
• Card numbers and bank account patterns.
• Old archives, if the AI does not need them.

One rule set for the whole company

In AddSync the data filter is global. It is one set of rules for the whole organisation, and a new person who gets AI starts with the same limits as everyone else. This is less flexible than per-user rules. It is also easy to explain to an auditor and hard to get wrong, because there is one place to read and one place to change.

An example rule set

Example, not a real customer. A company with 120 mailboxes might start like this:

After two weeks the administrator reads the journal, relaxes the attachment rule for sales and keeps the rest. Because the filter is global, the change takes one edit.

Test it like a user

1. Change a ruleAdd the folder or sender you want to close.
2. Ask about a hidden itemAsk the assistant about something in that folder. The correct answer is that it cannot find anything.
3. Check the journalSee which tools ran, and confirm that nothing hidden was returned.
4. Write it downKeep a short record of the rule, the date and the result.

Filters are not a substitute for policy

Tell staff what they should not ask the AI, and keep mailbox permissions clean. Filters are the safety net, not the plan. The data filters page has the full list of options, and the security overview shows how filters fit with the guard and the journal.

Questions and answers

Does the filter hide mail from my people?

No. It limits only what the AI receives. People see their mail in Outlook as before.

Can each person set their own filter?

No. You set one rule for the whole company, so every mailbox has the same limits.

Can I change the rules later?

Yes. You change them in one place and they apply to every mailbox that uses AI.

What is the difference between the guard and the filter?

The guard decides who may use AI and how much one question may read. The filter decides which mail the AI may read.

What happens if a closed folder is mentioned in a question?

The AI finds nothing in it and says so. The journal still records which tool ran, so you can see the attempt.

Written by the AddSync team.