Voice access to business data demands bank-level security. Here is how we built it, in plain language.
Giving an AI assistant access to your accounting and CRM raises a legitimate question: how is that secured? Here is our answer, without jargon.
Permissions live on the server, not in the AI
This is the most important design decision we made. What a user is allowed to do is checked at every action by our server code, like your banking app that only shows your own account no matter what you type. Even if someone tries to trick the assistant with clever phrasing, the server simply refuses everything their PIN does not allow. The AI cannot override this because the AI was never in charge.
This differs fundamentally from chatbots that have in their system prompt: 'You must not show financial data.' That is an instruction to a language model, not a security measure. At CallMerlin, security is in code, not in text.
Your keys, encrypted at rest
You connect your own SaaS accounts. The credentials are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, the same class of encryption used by banks and governments, and are never shown again after setup, not even to you. Even our own staff cannot see the unencrypted values.
One PIN per person, 2FA on top
Each team member gets a personal 6-digit PIN with their own permissions. For sensitive roles you can enable two-step verification via an authenticator app (recommended) or SMS: a 6-digit code as an extra layer. This works identically via the phone, the widget, the desktop app and Slack/Teams.
EU-hosted, GDPR by design
- Account and platform data are stored in the European Union; AI inference may involve xAI in the US under DPA/SCCs.
- By default we log which commands were executed, not the spoken conversation.
- Audit logs retain who/what/when for 90 days, without content data.
- A Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is available with every paid plan.
- You choose how users appear in logs: name, pseudonym or anonymous.
Comparison with alternatives
Most AI voice platforms run on American servers (OpenAI, Twilio, AWS US). At CallMerlin account and platform data stay in the EU (Google Cloud europe-west4, Netherlands). For AI (Grok), chat, voice and transcripts may go to xAI in the US under a DPA and standard contractual clauses. That is not an EU-only claim; we are transparent about it.
Questions about security? We are happy to walk through the architecture with your IT team, get in touch via the dashboard. For MSPs or hard requirements on where data stays: see CallMerlin Edge (on-prem) (early access) and the Edge blog.
