Skip to main content

Data Security Guide

As a robot that operates computer workflows on behalf of the user, EMILY.RPA needs to run with user permissions after the operating system login, so its access to files and other OS-related resources is the same as the user's. To ensure that files accessed during skill execution don't exceed the user's expectations, a new working folder is created each time a skill runs, serving as the scope for data access. Commands and modules within a skill can directly access files in the working folder, but accessing files or folders outside the working folder requires the user to specify the file or folder path when installing the skill.

User downloads and installs a skill from SKILL HUB

User must specify non-working-folder files or folders on the installation details page

Files or folders specified by the user during installation remain on the local machine for reference by commands or modules needed during skill execution. File contents are not uploaded.

EMILY.RPA Cloud Data Retention Policies​

Account​

An account is the authorization basis for using EMILY.RPA, used to verify whether the user can legally execute authorized functions. The cloud only stores the registered email address, used for sending dynamic random codes and verification — no other personal information is required. After verification, functions can only be executed from the EMILY.RPA software.

Skills​

When a user finishes designing a skill, in addition to saving it locally, the skill is uploaded to the EMILY.RPA cloud server as a backup. Skill content includes the identifier, name, description, skill group and various configuration parameters, as well as workflow operation commands. The enterprise plan's group management dashboard retains all uploaded skill versions; otherwise, only the latest version is retained. When a user executes a skill, every command runs on the local computer, and files generated during execution are stored in the skill's working folder — they are not uploaded to the cloud server.

Usage Records​

Time records of EMILY.RPA software usage and skill execution are stored in the cloud for auditing purposes in the enterprise plan's group management dashboard. These access records are retained for one year, after which expired data is progressively destroyed.

Data Protection in Skill Design​

EMILY.RPA's design tools offer a high degree of flexibility, allowing users to build customized workflows according to their needs. Therefore, during the design process, it's important to remain vigilant about data protection to avoid accidentally leaking personal or sensitive data while designing or executing skills.

Isolating Command Parameters​

EMILY.RPA "skills" are primarily composed of a sequence of workflow operation steps. For example, going to www.wikipedia.org, searching for a keyword, then downloading the search results and saving them as a PDF — this simple example would be a sequence of these steps: "Go to Wikipedia", "Load Wikipedia", "Enter keyword", "Press ENTER", "Load search results page", "Save results", "Export working folder".

For the "Go to URL" command, the skill records the "Go to URL" command and the parameter https://www.wikipedia.org/. Similarly, the "Keyboard Input" command records the "Keyboard Input" command and the text string parameter world wide web. Therefore, when you click "Upload" after finishing skill design, EMILY.RPA sends this sequence of commands and parameters to the user's "Cloud Skill Hub" for backup, allowing users to download and execute them in the future without worrying about losing "skills" due to local software removal or computer reinstallation — users can even execute skills on a different computer.

Using the "Keyboard Input" example with the search keyword world wide web, if you want to change the keyword next time, you can use the "Adjust" skill function to modify the text parameter in the "Keyboard Input" step:

While this method achieves the goal, it inevitably requires readjusting and saving again when the keyword changes next time — not only lacking flexibility, but the keyword is also uploaded with the skill. Therefore, the recommended approach is to save the keyword locally as a parameter file, and have EMILY.RPA read the file content as the keyword only when executing the command.

This way, what gets uploaded to the "Cloud Skill Hub" is the file path rather than the data itself.

Protecting Local Parameter Files​

After isolating command parameters into local files, the data is no longer uploaded to the cloud. However, the parameter files can still be easily exposed to others who have access to the computer. EMILY.RPA provides an encryption function — click "Protect Text" in "Account Settings" to encrypt the keyword content that needs protection.

This way, when "saving" locally as the parameter file keyword.txt, the content is encrypted using the encryption key provided by EMILY.RPA for this computer. Only EMILY.RPA can decrypt it back to the original text when reading.

Ciphertext of "world wide web"

Automation Modules​

The parameters of automation modules include all No-Code parameters and Low-Code scripts. For example, with the "Export Working Folder" module in the demo skill, the export target folder path and No-Code command parameters are all uploaded with the skill. Therefore, FILTER can also consider using the %FILENAME% variable to isolate parameter content.

For the PowerShell module and Terminal Command Line module, since these two modules hand off scripts to the operating system's PowerShell and terminal command line for execution, they cannot be controlled by EMILY.RPA. Users should pay special attention when installing skills that contain these modules.