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Draftable Legal and Draftable Business are Windows desktop applications. The comparison engine runs on the user’s own machine, which means the documents you compare are not uploaded to Draftable. This page sets out exactly what that means in practice, what network connections the application does make, and which of those an administrator can turn off.
This page covers the desktop products. If you use the cloud-hosted Draftable API or Draftable Online, your documents are processed on our infrastructure and different handling applies. For company-wide certifications and controls, see Security and compliance at Draftable.

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Your documents stay on your machine

When a user compares two documents, every stage of that work happens locally:
  • Documents are read from local disk, your network shares, or your document management system.
  • Conversion, comparison, and rendering all run in processes on the user’s own machine.
  • Outputs such as PDF redlines, Word tracked-changes documents, and side-by-side views are written back to locations you control.
No part of the document content is transmitted to Draftable to perform a comparison. The application works this way whether or not it currently has internet access.

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What does leave the machine

The application makes a small number of outbound HTTPS connections, none of which carry document content. Two are required and two are optional.
For the full firewall and proxy detail your network team will need, see Network Requirements for Draftable Legal, or Network Requirements for Draftable Business.

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Telemetry

Telemetry helps us understand how the product is used and where it can be improved. It is designed so that it cannot identify a person:
  • No personally identifiable information is collected. No names, no email addresses.
  • No potentially identifiable information is collected either. Telemetry is not linked to specific users, licences, IP addresses, or organisations.
  • Data captured covers usage counts, file types and sizes in kilobytes, feature usage, performance timings, error rates, system configuration, and interaction patterns.
  • Telemetry is never used for direct sales or marketing.
Users can disable telemetry in application settings, and administrators can disable it centrally through Group Policy. Organisations that want attributable usage reporting can opt in to an organisation-level identifier, which tags telemetry at the organisation level without introducing user-level personal information.

Product Telemetry

Full detail on what telemetry captures and how it is used. A complete field list is available on request.

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Error reporting

If the application hits an unexpected error, it can send a diagnostic report to help us fix the problem. These reports carry diagnostic information, not your documents. Users can disable error reporting in settings, and administrators can disable it through Group Policy.

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Sharing files with support is always your decision

Occasionally a comparison problem can only be diagnosed by looking at the files involved. Draftable never takes those files automatically. Instead:
  • Sharing is user-initiated. Nothing is sent unless someone actively chooses to send it.
  • The application includes Create safe file for sharing (called the Document Obfuscator before version 26.6), which scrambles the content of a document pair first, so we receive the structure needed to reproduce the fault without the confidential text.
  • Administrators can switch the capability off entirely through Group Policy, so that obfuscated documents cannot be sent at all, including from within error dialogs.

How to create a safe file for sharing

What the process does to your document, so you can decide whether to use it.

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Document management system connections

Draftable integrates with iManage, NetDocuments, SharePoint, Worldox, and Epona. These integrations connect the desktop application directly to your own DMS. Documents move between your DMS and the user’s machine; they do not route through Draftable. Authentication is handled by your DMS using your existing identity and access controls, including single sign-on and conditional access where you have them configured.

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Office and Outlook add-ins

Draftable’s Office and Outlook add-ins communicate with the desktop application over localhost on the user’s own machine. Comparison still happens locally.
Some endpoint protection and network security tools block localhost traffic by default. Where that happens the add-ins will fail to reach the desktop application. This traffic stays on the user’s machine and does not cross your network boundary.

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Administrator controls

Draftable Legal is built for managed enterprise deployment, and the security-relevant behaviour above is centrally controllable.
  • Deployment options. A per-user EXE installer with automatic updates, or a machine-wide MSI for enterprise, Citrix, and RDS environments where you want to control update timing yourself.
  • Group Policy. ADMX and ADML templates are provided so that settings can be managed through your existing Group Policy infrastructure, or through Microsoft Intune.
  • Policy precedence. Settings resolve in a fixed order, with machine and user policy taking precedence over user-set preferences, so a policy you set cannot be overridden locally.

Most common registry configurations

The settings administrators most often apply, including privacy and telemetry controls.

System and network requirements

Specifications and connectivity to confirm before deployment.

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A note on Draftable Clean

Draftable Clean follows the same model. Metadata scanning and cleaning are performed locally and documents are not uploaded to Draftable. It makes comparable outbound connections for licence verification and updates, with optional error reporting and telemetry that can be disabled in settings or through Group Policy. See Draftable Clean Network Requirements for detail.

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Need something for a security review?

For certifications, policies, and attestation reports, see Security and compliance at Draftable or go straight to the Trust Center. For anything specific to your deployment, contact support@draftable.com.