Connecting Starmind & Google Drive
The Google Drive connector uses documents and the authors associated with those documents to build accurate expertise profiles.
The Google Drive connector focuses on documents and their authors. We use the document's content and metadata (what it is about) to enhance each individual's expertise profile.
Data Retention and Privacy
By default, Starmind does not store the textual content of Google Drive documents. Only the document’s authors (email), extracted topics, and metadata (e.g., URL) are retained.
Access Control via Technical User Account
Starmind requires a dedicated technical user account to retrieve data from your Google Drive environment. Our connector uses Google Drive permissions, meaning it can only access Google Drive files, which the technical user can access.
This ensures you remain in control — you can revoke access immediately by adjusting the technical user’s permissions or removing the account.
Required Permissions and Consent
To function correctly, the connector requires read access to Google Drive. During the setup, you will log in with your technical user account and explicitly grant consent to the required permissions.
Below is the list of required delegated Google Drive permissions and what they allow:
drive.metadata.readonly
: See information about google drive files the technical user account has access to.drive.readonly
: See and download all your Google Drive files the technical user account has access to.
More information about Google Drive permissions can be found here:https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/oauth2/scopes#drive
Integrating with Google Drive
1. Setting Up the Technical User for Starmind’s Google Drive Connector
To ensure a secure and controlled connection between Starmind and Google Drive, we recommend creating a dedicated technical user account in your Google Suite environment. This account is used exclusively for the Starmind connector and should follow best practices for service accounts.
Recommended Approach
- Create a dedicated user account
- Set up a new account, such as [email protected].
- Grant the necessary shared drives to the user
- Add this technical user to only the Google Drives that Starmind should be able to access. This minimizes exposure and ensures compliance with internal data policies.
- Apply security best practices
- Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) if your organization requires it for all accounts.
- Use Conditional Access Policies to restrict when and where this account can be used.
- Consider disabling email and interactive login to limit its usage to API-based access only.
- Document & monitor usage
- Maintain internal documentation about the account’s purpose and permissions.
- Set up monitoring and alerts in Google Suite to track unexpected activity.
- Assign responsibility for reviewing access periodically to ensure compliance.
By following this approach, you keep control over the connector’s access while maintaining security and flexibility.
2. Connecting Starmind to Google Drive
- From the left-hand navigation panel, select Admin and then Integrations
- From the Available tab, search for Google Drive
- Select Connect
- Use the credentials of a dedicated technical user to log into your Google environment.
- Accept the terms of the integration and grant the requested permissions.
- Once connected, the system automatically starts processing the data it has access to and starts building an accurate expertise profile for each individual.
Updated 3 days ago