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Sensitive data search is an administrative capability that allows designated users to locate mentions of specific terms, customer names, or personally identifiable information (PII) across all content indexed by Glean. Unlike standard search, this feature operates independently of document permissions. It is designed specifically for security, privacy, and compliance teams to support incident response and data governance workflows.
Important: Sensitive data search bypasses end-user document permissions for discovery purposes. While the search interface itself is designed for privileged administrators, results remain fully permission-enforced if a user attempts to open the document in its source application (e.g., Google Drive, Slack) .

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Core principles

  • Searches all indexed documents, excluding entities like people and teams, to identify data exposure across every configured data source.
  • To prevent unnecessary exposure, search results display high-level metadata only; document titles and content snippets are hidden.
  • A prominent UI banner alerts the user that they are performing an elevated search outside their default permissions.
  • This feature is disabled by default. Access is restricted to a small group of approved users, such as Incident Responders and Privacy Officers, and must be explicitly enabled by Glean.

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Enablement process

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Prerequisites

  • You must be a Glean Admin to request enablement.
  • You must obtain internal approval from your organization’s security or compliance leadership.

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Step 1: Identify eligible users

Compile a list of email addresses for users who require this access. Example: [email protected], [email protected]

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Step 2: Enable access

Access to this feature can be managed directly by a Glean Super Admin. Alternatively, you can contact your Glean account team or Glean Support with the following details:
  1. Tenant name: Your unique deployment identifier.
  2. User list: The approved list of email addresses.

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Step 3: Verify propagation

Once Glean confirms access, changes typically take a few minutes to propagate. Provisioned users will see a Sensitive data search option in their user menu.

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Accessing the interface

  1. Sign in to Glean.
  2. Click your profile menu (avatar) in the header.
  3. Select Sensitive data search.
  1. Enter a specific identifier (e.g., a customer name, account number, or project codename) in the search box.
  2. Execute the search.
  3. Review the matching results.

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Interpreting results

Glean returns a list of items with specific metadata to facilitate remediation:
  • Source application: (e.g., Drive, Slack, Confluence).
  • Ownership: The document owner, message author, or issue reporter.
  • Timestamps: When the item was created or last updated.
Use this metadata to contact the content owner and remediate potential data exposure, such as adjusting permissions or moving misplaced sensitive data.