CM Chat security overview

This page explains, in plain terms, how CM Chat protects your team's information, and what it does not do. CM Chat is operated by Image Depot LLC.

Be clear about what this is

CM Chat is not end-to-end encrypted. Messages are encrypted in transit and when stored, but the CM Chat servers process message content. That is what makes search, administration and moderation tools work. If you need messages that not even the service can ever read, CM Chat is not designed for that today.

The CM Chat team has no screen for reading customer messages. Your workspace admins can delete messages and files and can see the activity log, but cannot read direct messages through the admin console.

Encryption

Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest. That covers message text, files and file names, and people's personal details.

Signing in

• Invite only. No one can create an account without an invitation.
• Sign in with an email code, with an optional second step and passkeys. Workspace owners can require a second step for everyone and can require passkeys for admins.
• Sign-in codes and invitation links expire, and repeated failed attempts are temporarily blocked.
• Sessions belong to one workspace, expire, and can be listed and ended remotely.
• Confirmation for sensitive actions: sensitive admin work asks you to confirm it is you.
• No guessing: the sign-in page never reveals whether an email has an account.

Separate workspaces

Every workspace has its own address (yourteam.cmchat.app) and is kept separate from every other workspace, and every request is checked against the workspace it belongs to. Anything you may not see looks like it does not exist.

Admin activity log

Security-relevant actions are recorded in a detailed log that workspace admins can review. Message text is not written to the log.

Deleting data

When a channel or workspace is deleted permanently, its data is made unreadable and then removed. Backups, when offered, expire on a short schedule.

Access by country

Workspace owners choose the countries that can reach their workspace.

Other protections

• No third-party scripts or trackers in the app.
• Messages are shown as safe text, never as HTML.
• CM Chat is monitored and protected against abuse and automated attacks.

What is not available yet

Single sign-on and data export are not available yet, and voice and video calls are rolling out. Owners can import a Slack export, and there are an Android app and a Windows desktop app. If your workspace sets a retention period, messages older than it are deleted automatically. This page will change as features arrive.

Security documentation and reporting

Detailed security documentation is available on request: security@cmchat.app. To report a security problem, write to the same address.