AI, data handling, and subprocessors
Understand where GovTribe stores and processes your data, how GovTribe AI and GovTribe MCP use third-party AI providers, which subprocessors handle customer data, and the retention, deletion, training, and security-incident commitments that apply.
Last updated: September 3, 2026.
This page is part of the GovTribe Terms of Use as Additional Terms for GovTribe AI and GovTribe MCP. Use it when your security, legal, or IT team needs to review how GovTribe handles your Content before your organization enables AI features. Personal data handling also follows the Privacy Policy.
Terms used on this page
"Content" has the meaning given in the Terms of Use: the data, files, work product, and business development information you submit to GovTribe. "AI Features" means GovTribe AI conversations, automations, Daily Briefing, summaries and recommendations, Docs Ask, and GovTribe MCP tools. "AI providers" are the third-party services listed below that GovTribe uses to run AI Features.
Where your data is stored and processed
GovTribe is operated by GovTribe Inc., which is owned by GovExec (Government Executive Media Group), headquartered in Washington, DC. The GovTribe application, its databases and search index, your Content, uploaded files, and exports are hosted in Amazon Web Services in the United States (US East, Northern Virginia).
AI providers process your Content in their own environments when an AI Feature runs. Every subprocessor that processes your Content does so in the United States. The subprocessor tables list each one, and separately list the business systems that handle account and usage data but never receive your Content.
How GovTribe AI processes your Content
When you use GovTribe AI, GovTribe sends the information needed to answer you to an AI provider. Depending on the conversation and your settings, that can include:
- The prompt text you enter and prior turns in the same conversation.
- GovTribe records, search results, and files the conversation uses.
- Files you upload to GovTribe AI, add to a vector store, or add to a code-execution container, and search results you materialize into a container as a file.
- Audio you record with microphone dictation, which is transcribed to text for the composer.
- Memories and custom instructions, when you have them enabled in Tune GovTribe AI.
- Workspace activity and profile context, when Access GovTribe Data is enabled.
- Results from connected tools such as Gmail, Google Drive, SharePoint, Teams, or Outlook, when you have connected them and left them on for the chat.
| AI Feature | Provider | What the provider receives |
|---|---|---|
| GovTribe AI conversations, automations, Daily Briefing, summaries, and recommendations | OpenAI | Prompt text, conversation history, GovTribe records and search results used in the turn, and enabled personalization context. |
| File search and container uploads in GovTribe AI, and the vector store and container MCP tools | OpenAI | Files you upload, add to a vector store, or add to a container, and search results you materialize into a container as a file. GovTribe uploads them to OpenAI so its tools can search or run code over them. |
| Voice dictation in GovTribe AI and Docs Ask | OpenAI | Audio you record with the microphone, which OpenAI transcribes to text for the composer. |
| Web search and code execution in GovTribe AI | OpenAI | Search queries and code derived from your prompt, run by OpenAI-hosted tools during the turn. |
| Memories | OpenAI | Recent conversation content used to generate memory candidates, and files GovTribe renders from your active memories and recent conversation summaries and uploads to OpenAI so a turn can use them. Memories themselves are stored in GovTribe. |
| Search result reranking in GovTribe AI, GovTribe MCP, and Docs Ask | Cohere | Your search text or ranking goal plus short text from the candidate records being ranked. |
| Docs Ask | OpenAI | Your documentation question and the documentation pages used to answer it. |
| AI quality and troubleshooting | Langfuse | A trace of each AI turn, including prompts, tool inputs and outputs, and responses. GovTribe staff use traces to diagnose failures and review answer quality. |
GovTribe uses OpenAI and Cohere through their commercial API platforms under their business terms, not through consumer products such as ChatGPT. GovTribe does not use any other AI model provider today. If GovTribe adds or replaces an AI provider, it updates this page and the subprocessor table.
How GovTribe MCP processes your Content
GovTribe MCP works differently from GovTribe AI. You choose and operate the AI application, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Codex, Gemini, or a developer client. GovTribe does not send your Content to those providers on its own. Your AI application calls GovTribe MCP tools, and the application's provider handles the conversation under your agreement with that provider.
| Direction | What is shared |
|---|---|
| From your AI application to GovTribe | Only the arguments of each tool call, such as search text, filters, record identifiers, and any workspace content you ask the tool to create or update, plus the identity of the GovTribe user whose key or authorization made the call. |
| From GovTribe to your AI application | The tool result: matching GovTribe records, files, workspace records, or a confirmation of a workspace change. |
| Never shared with GovTribe | Your other prompts, files, and conversations inside the AI application. GovTribe sees only what the application sends in a tool call. |
A few MCP tools use GovTribe's own AI providers while they run. Search tools that rerank results send your search text and candidate record text to Cohere. The vector store tools upload files to, and search, OpenAI vector stores. The container tools upload files and materialized search results to an OpenAI code-execution container. The Documentation tool reranks documentation pages with Cohere. No other MCP tool sends your data to an AI provider on GovTribe's side.
GovTribe also records each MCP call for product analytics, including the tool arguments it retains under its capture policy, such as search text and filters. Those events go to Twilio Segment and the business systems listed below.
The GovTribe agent in the Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent Store is the same GovTribe MCP connection published as an agent. Microsoft processes the Copilot conversation under your Microsoft agreement; GovTribe receives tool calls and returns tool results as described above.
Control which AI Features process your data
| Goal | What to do |
|---|---|
| Keep GovTribe data out of external AI applications | Do not connect an AI application to GovTribe MCP. GovTribe AI and the rest of GovTribe work without any MCP connection. |
| Stop a developer client that uses an MCP API key | Disconnect GovTribe in the client, then revoke the key on GovTribe MCP. Account owners can revoke any account member's MCP API key. |
| Stop ChatGPT, Claude, or Microsoft 365 Copilot | These connect through a GovTribe sign-in authorization, not an API key. Disconnect GovTribe inside the application. The authorization then stops being used and expires on its own within three months. Contact GovTribe to revoke it sooner, including another member's authorization. |
| Stop credit-billed AI and MCP work for the whole account | Disable credits from Credits. Credit-billed GovTribe AI turns and MCP tools stop before any AI provider work begins. |
| Turn off GovTribe AI or GovTribe MCP for your account entirely | Contact GovTribe. GovTribe can disable either feature at the account level. |
| Limit what GovTribe AI can use about you | Turn off Memories, Full Conversation Recall, or Access GovTribe Data in Tune GovTribe AI. Turning Memories off deletes saved memories immediately. |
| Keep external tools out of a chat | Turn connected tools off for the chat, or disconnect them from Connected Tools. |
| Remove AI work you no longer want kept | Delete the conversation, file, vector store, or memory in GovTribe. See Retention and deletion for what happens at AI providers. |
Training
GovTribe does not use your Content to train, fine-tune, or otherwise improve any AI model, and does not allow its AI providers to do so. GovTribe uses OpenAI through its API platform, which does not use API inputs or outputs to train OpenAI models. GovTribe has turned off model training in its Cohere account data controls, and Cohere's Enterprise Data Commitments state that prompts and generations from paying customers are not used to train Cohere models when that setting is off.
This commitment covers processing GovTribe performs. When you use GovTribe MCP from an external AI application, that application's provider handles your conversation under your agreement with it. Check the training and retention terms of your ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Codex, Gemini, or developer platform plan.
Retention and deletion
GovTribe keeps your Content for as long as your subscription is active, subject to the account inactivity rule in the Terms of Use.
| Data | What happens when you delete it in GovTribe |
|---|---|
| Conversations | GovTribe removes the conversation. Conversation state that OpenAI holds to continue the conversation expires under OpenAI's 30-day API data retention. |
| Files, vector stores, and containers | GovTribe removes the file and deletes the copy it uploaded to the OpenAI vector store. Files uploaded to an OpenAI container expire with the container within a day. |
| Memories | GovTribe removes the memory immediately. Turning Memories off deletes all saved memories. Memory files uploaded to OpenAI are replaced when your memories change, pruned within a day once superseded, and deleted after 30 days at most. |
| Search reranking requests | Nothing to delete in GovTribe. Cohere logs reranking requests and automatically deletes them after 30 days. |
| AI traces | Langfuse traces are kept for GovTribe's operational quality review until GovTribe deletes them. They are deleted with the rest of your Content when you request deletion after your subscription ends. |
When your subscription ends, you may ask GovTribe to delete your organization's Content. Submit the request through GovExec's Exercise Your Rights process, which GovTribe uses for access, deletion, and opt-out requests. GovTribe deletes the Content from its production systems, deletes it from subprocessors where GovTribe controls deletion, lets it expire where a subprocessor keeps its own retention period, and emails the account owner when GovTribe's deletion is complete. Deleted Content can remain in encrypted backup snapshots, stored in the same US region, for up to 12 months until those snapshots expire. GovTribe uses backups only to recover the Services after a failure.
Security incidents
If GovTribe confirms a security incident that affects your Content, GovTribe notifies the account owner by email without undue delay, with what is known about the affected data, the likely impact, and the steps GovTribe is taking. GovTribe keeps the account owner informed as the investigation continues.
Subprocessors
Subprocessors are third parties that store or process customer data on GovTribe's behalf. The first table lists the subprocessors that can process your Content. The second lists the business systems that process account, billing, support, and product usage data and do not receive your Content.
Subprocessors that process your Content
| Subprocessor | Purpose | Data involved | Primary processing location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services | Application hosting, file storage, email delivery, queues, and personalization | All Content, uploaded files, and exports | United States |
| MongoDB Atlas | Primary database | All Content and account data | United States |
| Elastic | Search index | GovTribe records and workspace records | United States |
| OpenAI | AI models, file search, web search, code-execution containers, and audio transcription for GovTribe AI, MCP vector store and container tools, and Docs Ask | Prompts, conversation history, GovTribe records, uploaded files, dictation audio, memory files, and personalization context | United States |
| Cohere | Search result reranking | Search text and candidate record text | United States |
| Langfuse | AI observability and quality review | AI turn traces, including prompts, tool inputs and outputs, and responses | United States |
Business systems that process account and usage data
| Provider | Purpose | Data involved | Primary processing location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Subscription billing and payments | Billing contact and payment details | United States |
| HubSpot | Customer relationship management, support chat, and contact forms | Name, email, company, and support conversations | United States |
| Twilio Segment | Product analytics event routing | User identity, product usage events, and the MCP tool arguments GovTribe retains for analytics, such as search text and filters | United States |
| Snowflake | Analytics data warehouse | The product usage events routed through Twilio Segment, including retained MCP tool arguments | United States |
| Userpilot | In-app product guidance | User identity and product usage events | United States |
| Analytics, advertising conversion measurement, reCAPTCHA, and maps | Usage, device, and conversion event data | United States | |
| Advertising conversion measurement | Conversion event and device data | United States | |
| Sentry | Error monitoring | Technical error context and user identifiers | United States |
| Twilio | Phone number verification by SMS | Phone number | United States |
| Fingerprint | Device identification for account security and abuse prevention | Browser and device signals | United States |
| Mailgun and SparkPost | Transactional and notification email | Name, email address, and notification content | United States |
| Clearbit | Company identification and enrichment | Business email address, company domain, and IP address | United States |
| Cloudflare | Bot protection on sign-in, registration, and password reset forms | IP address and browser signals | United States |
| Kickbox | Email address verification at registration | Email address | United States |
| Baremetrics | Cancellation feedback when a subscription is cancelled | Billing customer identifier and cancellation reason | United States |
AI applications and tools you connect yourself are not GovTribe subprocessors. That includes ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Codex, Gemini, and developer clients connected through GovTribe MCP, Zapier, and the Google and Microsoft connected tools you add to GovTribe AI. Those providers process your data under your own agreements with them.
GovTribe updates this table when it adds or replaces a subprocessor. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last reviewed.
Data processing terms
GovTribe does not sign customer-specific data processing agreements or addenda. This page, the Terms of Use, and the Privacy Policy are GovTribe's data processing terms for every customer, and GovTribe updates this page rather than negotiating separate versions.
Under the Terms of Use, GovTribe processes your Content only to provide the Services and on your instructions, does not sell your Content or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, binds subprocessors that process your Content to written terms at least as protective as the Terms, assists you with requests from individuals about their personal data in your Content, and notifies you if it can no longer meet those obligations. If your security or compliance team has questions this page does not answer, send them through the Contact Sales form.
Related articles
- Terms of Use: Review the terms that govern access to and use of GovTribe services.
- Privacy Policy: Review GovTribe's privacy policy and the current GovExec privacy-policy destination.
- GovTribe MCP: Connect GovTribe MCP to supported AI tools and manage MCP API keys.
- Tune GovTribe AI: Manage global Intelligence and Response length preferences, custom instructions, memory access, conversation recall, and GovTribe data access.
- Credits: Enable or disable credit-powered features, buy credit packs, configure auto-refill, and audit usage.