I’m excited to share that Filently has successfully completed Google’s Cloud Application Security Assessment (CASA) at Tier 2. This certification represents an important milestone in our commitment to keeping your data secure and private.
What is CASA?
CASA, short for Cloud Application Security Assessment, is a security framework developed by Google for applications that access Google user data. It ensures that apps connecting to services like Google Drive meet rigorous security standards before they can access your information.
Google requires CASA certification for applications that request access to sensitive user data. The assessment evaluates how an application handles, stores, and protects that data. There are multiple tiers, with higher tiers requiring more comprehensive third-party security audits.
At Tier 2, an independent security assessor evaluates the application against a comprehensive set of security requirements. This isn’t a self-assessmentāit’s a thorough review conducted by qualified security professionals.
Why Filently Needs Access to Your Google Drive
To automatically organize your documents, Filently needs to understand how your files are currently structured. This means reading metadata from your folders and filesāinformation like file names, folder hierarchies, and document types.
Without this access, we wouldn’t have the foundation needed to intelligently name and file your documents. By understanding your existing folder structure, Filently can learn your organizational preferences and place new documents exactly where they belong.
We want to be transparent: we only access the metadata necessary to provide our service. We read folder structures and file information to understand your organization system, enabling us to automatically sort incoming documents in a way that makes sense for you.
The Assessment Process
Our CASA Tier 2 assessment was conducted by TAC Security, an official Google partner for CASA audits. Their team performed an independent security review of Filently, evaluating our security practices, data handling procedures, and technical infrastructure.
The assessment covered areas including:
- Data encryption and secure transmission
- Access controls and authentication
- Secure data storage practices
- Vulnerability management
- Incident response procedures
For those interested in the technical details of our CASA journey, I’ve written a more in-depth article on Medium: Filently’s Road to CASA Tier 2 Certification .
Strong Security From Day One
Even before undergoing the CASA assessment, we had implemented robust security measures throughout Filently. Security and privacy have been core principles since the very beginning of development.
Because of this foundation, the assessment did not reveal any severe issues. Our existing security practices aligned well with Google’s requirements, confirming that our approach to protecting user data meets industry standards.
What This Means for You
This certification provides independent verification that Filently meets Google’s security standards for handling your data. When you connect your Google Drive to Filently, you can be confident that:
- Your data is protected by verified security practices
- An independent third party has evaluated our security measures
- We’re transparent about what data we access and why
- We’re committed to maintaining these standards going forward
Our Ongoing Commitment
Achieving CASA Tier 2 certification is not the end of our security effortsāit’s a validation of our ongoing commitment. We will continue to prioritize security and privacy in everything we build, regularly reviewing and improving our practices to meet the highest standards.
Thank you for trusting Filently with your document organization. If you have any questions about our security practices or the CASA certification, feel free to reach out at [email protected] .
ā Valentin, Founder of Filently