Security Overview

This page summarizes Ferndesk's security posture as it relates to GitHub access, customer source code handling, AI processing, data retention, compliance status, and third-party service providers.

Security Controls

• Data is encrypted in transit.

• Integration credentials are encrypted before storage.

• Raw support-ticket message payloads are stored encrypted.

• PII in support tickets are redacted during processing

• GitHub webhook signatures are validated before webhook events are accepted.

• Access to Ferndesk is limited to authenticated users and authorized workspace roles.

Data Handling

• Ferndesk stores the account, configuration, help-center, billing, and service data required to operate the service.

• If a customer connects support systems, Ferndesk may process support conversations and related metadata to identify documentation gaps and draft updates.

• If a customer connects GitHub, repository data is processed only for the documentation-related workflows the customer enables.

Codebase access

Ferndesk connects to GitHub through a GitHub App when a customer enables that integration.

• GitHub access is read-only.

• Ferndesk uses read-only repository access to analyze repository contents, commit history, and pull request context for documentation workflows.

• Ferndesk does not require write, admin, repository-management, or organization-administration permissions.

• GitHub App installation can be restricted to specific repositories only.

• Ferndesk uses pull request webhooks to detect merged changes and trigger documentation review workflows.

Ferndesk does not use GitHub access to write back to repositories, merge pull requests, change repository settings, or perform repository administration.

Source code handling

• Ferndesk does not store customer source code in its product databases.

• Ferndesk does not build or maintain a persistent search or embedding index of customer source code.

• Ferndesk's persistent search systems are used for published knowledge content and related search data, not customer source code.

• When code analysis is required, Ferndesk uses temporary, time-limited repository workspaces that are automatically cleaned up.

• Ferndesk retains only limited repository metadata needed to manage documentation workflows, such as repository name, pull request reference, merge timestamp, and generated change summaries.

In practice, Ferndesk may temporarily process repository contents in order to draft or evaluate documentation updates, but Ferndesk does not turn customer source code into a persistent product database record or a long-lived code-search index.

AI Processing

Ferndesk uses third-party AI services to generate drafts, summaries, and embeddings used in documentation workflows.

• OpenRouter is used for model routing and generation.

• Google Vertex AI is used for embeddings and related model services.

• These services process the inputs required to complete the requested workflow.

• Ferndesk does not use customer source code for model training.

Ferndesk's AI features are used to assist with documentation generation, summarization, classification, and search. They are not used to build a reusable training corpus from customer source code.

Data Retention and Deletion

• Customer content is retained for the duration of the subscription.

• Customer content is deleted within 30 days of termination or deletion request, unless a shorter deletion window applies.

• Backup copies are overwritten within 60 days.

• Billing, audit, and security logs may be retained longer where required for legal, accounting, or security purposes.

• Deleting a workspace removes associated managed search data used by Ferndesk.

Raw support-ticket message payloads are handled separately from long-lived documentation outputs. Where Ferndesk stores raw support message data for processing, those payloads are encrypted.

Compliance Status

• Ferndesk is not currently SOC 2 certified.

• SOC 2 Type I is in progress.

• Ferndesk does not currently publish a public trust center.

• Ferndesk does not currently have a SOC report available to share under NDA.

Subprocessors and Service Providers

Core service providers

These providers support the hosted product and may process customer or service data as part of Ferndesk's core operation.

Additional and limited-scope providers

These providers are used for narrower functions such as embeddings, product analytics, embeds, changelog widgets, and website attribution.

Customer-enabled integrations such as GitHub, Zendesk, Intercom, Help Scout, Slack, and similar systems are separate from Ferndesk's subprocessors and are only used when enabled by the customer.

8. Security Review Requests

For security reviews, vendor due diligence, or DPA requests, contact [email protected].