Stored data
In most cases, it is not a good idea to store personal data inside of clauses & templates, but some users nevertheless do.
For the sake of exhaustivity, we therefore also provide an extensive overview of all the types of data that gets stored on behalf of the users on the ClauseBase platform.
Clauses
Clauses are one of the most important data elements in the ClauseBase platform. They have an owner (user), filename, body and optionally a description, comments and attributes assigned to them. In Clause9, they can also have various other elements associated with them, see below.
Documents
Documents have a filename and owner (user).
In Clause9, documents are collections of clauses, accompanied by information about how the clauses are structured internally (e.g., first clause 1001, then clause 2023, then clause 5001, then a subclause 5023, etc.). Documents can hold layout information.
In ClauseBuddy, documents contain the entire contents of a DOCX file.
Q&A answers
End-users can optionally save the answers to a Q&A into a separate file ("answer set"), typically to prevent that the answers would need to be entered again a few days later (e.g. while negotiations are still ongoing). Those answers can deal with any type of data deemed relevant by the template author, e.g. commencement date, salary, interest rates, optional clauses to be inserted, free text added to the contract, etc.
In Clause9, template authors can also specify that answers from anonymous users must be saved in an encrypted way, using a password chosen by the end-user (optionally associated with an expiry key).
Attributes
Clauses can have attributes assigned to them, i.e. predefined metadata types, such as "length", "pro buyer", "aggressive?", "industry", etc. The ClauseBase platform stores both the blueprint for such attributes as the effective value assigned to each clause.
Security-related data
Access bundles
Each file and folder in the ClauseBase platform can have its own access settings. Those settings are centrally stored as access bundles, and store the owner of the bundle an the actions allowed by each user or user group (e.g., "the corporate department can read files tagged with this access bundle, but cannot edit them").
Expiry date of folders
Folders can optionally be assigned a user-definable expiry term. Every night, the files stored in an expired folder will get automatically removed, to prevent accumulation of data.
Logins
For each login performed by a user, the ClauseBase platform will store the user ID, a unique random token and the expiry date. This record will be deleted upon logout.
SSO settings
If a customer account is protected with SSO, then relevant settings (login expiry, launch URL, return URL, certificate) are stored by the ClauseBase platform.
Clause9-specific items
Binders
Binders are collections of Documents. Similar to Documents in Clause9, they can also have custom styling information.
Global placeholders
Clause9 allows to define "placeholders" at the level of a customer, group or user. Those placeholders will be dynamically replaced with concrete values, typically for use in a Clause9 template or in disclaimer messages. A placeholder has a name and a data type assigned to it.
Recently used Q&As and documents
Clause9 keeps track of the most recently used Q&As and documents, to show them as a short-list towards the user. (A user can also manually clear this list.)
Sub-elements of clauses
Action buttons
A clause can host one or more "action buttons" for modifying a clause inside of the Clause9 Assemble Document environment. Stored data includes the name of the button, its position, the database query it optionally executes, the subclause(s) it inserts when clicked and the insertion method.
Audit trail
Enterprise customers can optionally activate auditing for clauses. This will cause each updated version of a clause to be separately and integrally stored by the platform, so as to see how the contents of clauses evolved over time. In addition the full contents of each clause, the audit trail also stores the timestamp of the event, the system function or user command that triggered it, and the associated user.
Cross-tags
Clauses can be associated with "cross-tags", i.e. cross-reference target elements.
Custom layouts
Clauses can have a custom styling associated with them.
Links to Concepts & other clauses
Clauses can optionally contain links to other clauses and to concepts, e.g. to indicate that a certain clause is an example of a certain legal concept.
Memos
Clauses can optionally have one or more memos with text associated with them; typically used in a Q&A to show additional legal information (e.g., case law or legal doctrine) relating to that clause.
Metadata: timestamp & owner
For each clause and each folder, the ClauseBase platform will store a timestamp of the last change, as well as the "owner" (user) of the clause/folder.
Status
In Clause9, clauses can be assigned a status (such as "validated" or "draft").
Versions
Clause9 can store related versions of a clause — e.g., a version that was used before some relevant legislation was changed, and a current version used after that change in legislation.
Concepts
For each Concept, essential elements such as its datafields, data-expressions, concept-labels and links to other concepts can be stored.
Bookmarks
Each user can store bookmarks ("favourites") to interesting folders.
Custom home pages
Administrators can create one or more customised home pages, and assign them to certain user groups. Those home pages store the following information: title, styling (hide title, alignment, border, background colour, width, height), layout (number and type of columns, region to occupy, header & footer, padding), expiration date, max. amount of files to show, specific files to show.
Custom branding
Enterprise customers can store deviating CSS styling and custom logos, to brand their Clause9 portal.
Layout objects
On the level of the customer, group, user and individual document, so-called layout objects can be stored. Those layout-objects contain a title and owner, as well as specific layout information (e.g., font, paragraph settings, numbering scheme, locale style, enumeration settings, cross-reference styling).
Spreadbases
Clause9 allows to create "spreadbases", i.e. integrated spreadsheets that host commonly used business information (such as addresses of legal entities or names of signatures) that may be relevant in Q&As. Spreadbases can host multiple types of records (numbers, texts, lists of texts, dates, durations, etc) and may therefore store substantial amounts of data.
Third party integrations
Clause9 can be integrated with various third party services, such as Contractify and Corporify. Such integrations can have their own access bundle to define which users can use those integrations. Depending on the service considered, a password, OAuth token or API key may also get stored.
ClauseBuddy specific items
Bulk import sessions
ClauseBuddy's Bulk Import allows users to enrich the Quality Library through a bulk import of clauses that are extracted from uploaded documents.
During an import session — i.e. as long as the clauses are not saved in the Quality Library — the following is stored on behalf of the user:
Name and language of the session
Filename, metadata and contents of the uploaded DOCX files
Label, originating document, attrributes, description and comment for each extracted clause
Label and structure of each folder in the session's storage hierarchy
Bulk import sessions are automatically deleted each week to prevent them from accumulate. Users are alerted by email before this happens.
Curator inboxes
In ClauseBuddy, so-called "curators" automatically get an inbox, where messages are being stored that get sent by other users. Those messages contain a timestamp, title, note, language, body (usually some interesting new clause) and the name of the sender.
Legal guides
In ClauseBuddy, users can store legal guides, which essentially consist of side-panels with information regarding the currently selected clause in a DOCX file. Legal guides have their own name and access bundle, and for each clause they refer to they can also store a comment to be displayed to end-users.
Review sets
In ClauseBuddy, users can create rule sets for automatic LLM-driven document reviews. These rule sets store the following information for each rule set: title and optional access bundle to define who can edit & use the review rules. In each rule set, users can store requirements, each containing a title, body, associated actions to be undertaken by the end-user when the rule is not met: delete / highlight / comment / rewrite text, conditions when the requirement can be skipped, questions to be asked to the end-user.
Search folders
Search folders allow administrators to combine diverse folders into directories that users can easily browse with the Browse Quality Library module. Search folders have a name and an optional access bundle.
Style schemes
Users can store different style schemes (e.g., one scheme for short letters, one for contracts, one for internal memos, etc.), to facilitate automatic styling of clauses that get inserted into MS Word.
Those schemes store detailed settings that reflect the settings of an MS Word template, such as the style names used for headings/body/table paragraphs; text snippets to recognise templates.
Subscriptions
In ClauseBuddy, administrators can implement subscriptions for external users (e.g., the clients of a law firm). For each subscription, the following data elements are being stored: the security code, expiry date, support email address and logo shown to the end-users.
Truffle Hunt baskets
The Truffle Hunt feature of ClauseBuddy allows users to upload entire PDF or DOCX files. Not only can those documents be easily searched in; clauses in those files also get automatically extracted and made available. The module allows users to create different folders ("baskets"), each with its own access bundle to define which user can read from and contribute to the basket.
Truffle Hunt only stores information from DOCX/PDF files uploaded by users (including the metadata found in the original files). However, in practice, significant amounts of confidential data may thus get stored on the ClauseBase servers in this way. Read more about the compliance trade-offs for Truffle Hunt.
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