About Privacy and Security in Shift

Curious or worried about how secure Shift is? Or wondering why Shift requires access? Well, worry no more! This article explains it all.

Here at Shift, we take privacy and security very seriously. Right off the bat, we want you to know that none of what is contained within the emails and apps you add to Shift is ever shared with Shift's servers, Shift employees, or Shift's data partners. Ever. Period! To help explain, continue reading below!🔒

Why does Shift require access?

In short: API Access. Clicking Allow is granting the Shift desktop application, which is completely local to your computer, access to certain APIs for the emails you've added. API access is required so that Shift can display your emails, calendars, and drives, allow you to search within emails, calendars and drives, connect to the Mute Notifications feature, display notifications, etc.

Granting access does not in any way mean your emails, contacts, or drive contents are shared with Shift's servers, Shift employees, or Shift's data partners. No one on our team has access to this kind of information (that just doesn't make sense)!

This login process is not required for your added apps because Shift does not integrate API access to any web apps yet.

This is, of course, covered in extensive detail directly in our Privacy Policy (a legal document reviewed by our legal team, by the way)! We've also created a few additional resources to make it easier to understand:

How secure is Shift?

Very! Shift integrates email, app, and extension login security. This means when you log into your emails, apps, and extensions in Shift, you are using those email, app, and extension security mechanisms to authenticate.

The email authorization (pictured above) authorizes Shift (locally) to access your emails and download them to your local computer. An identity token is stored against your Shift account in the cloud, but the token required to access your emails is always local. Shift can handle your email privately and locally without any risk that anyone other than you can gain access to your information, data, or emails.

For more information about security in Shift, check out this article.

What kind of connections is behind the "Streamline Setup" option?

When you create your Shift account, you'll see an option to select "Streamline Setup". When you tick this box (picture A below), Shift will perform a local browser history scan to detect email accounts and apps that you've used in the past. Shift uses this webpage information to tailor your onboarding setup and automatically suggest email accounts (picture B below) and apps (picture C below) to add to Shift.

This scan is kept local to your computer and none of the information is sent to us or a server.