How to evaluate connector permissions and data access

A connector review is not a security audit of the AI vendor. It is a much narrower question: given this authorising account and these scopes, what could this connection reach on its worst day? Answer that and most other decisions follow.

Start with the authorising account

Almost every connection inherits the permissions of whoever authorised it. A connection authorised by an administrator with broad access is a materially different risk from the same connection authorised by an individual contributor. Where possible, authorise with a least-privileged account.

Read the scopes, not the marketing copy

• Distinguish read scopes from write and send scopes explicitly.
• Note whether scopes are per-resource (a folder, a repository) or tenant-wide.
• Record whether metadata alone is enough for the use case.

Fetch on demand or index and store?

An assistant that fetches a document when asked leaves a small footprint. One that indexes a whole drive to make retrieval fast creates a second copy of your content, with its own retention and deletion behaviour. These are different decisions and deserve different approvals.

Document what you verified and when

Connector behaviour changes. Keep a dated note of the scopes you approved and re-check on a cadence — this directory uses 30, 90, and over-90-day freshness bands for exactly the same reason.