Confidential email
Mark sensitive project email, such as legal or HR matters, Confidential, so only the project's owners and leads and organization admins see it.
A Confidential email is filed like any other email, but only a small audience sees it: the project's owners and leads, and organization admins.
Cogram can mark emails that might be confidential.
You can also mark emails yourself.
Confidential email is enabled per organization. Contact Cogram support to turn it on.
Settings (org admins)
Both settings are in Organization settings > Emails, in the Confidential email section.
Hide confidential from project members
Turns the feature on or off. On by default. See Turn hiding on or off.
Mark confidential email automatically
Lets Cogram's AI check each new email. Shown only while hiding is on. See Detect confidential email automatically.
Turn hiding on or off
When Hide confidential from project members is
Who sees confidential email
Who can mark email
On
Project leads, project owners, and org admins only
The same people
Off
The whole project team, including email marked earlier
Nobody
When you turn it off, Cogram asks you to confirm. Cogram keeps the marks. When you turn it back on, the marked email is hidden again.
Who sees and marks confidential email
Project owners and leads
Yes
Yes
Organization admins who are on the project
Yes
Yes
Other project members and viewers
No
No
A lead through a group counts as a lead.
To let someone see a project's confidential email, make them an owner or lead of the project.
Asset visibility still applies. In Owner or Restricted mode, a reader must also pass that rule.
Where confidential email is hidden
Readers outside the audience do not see confidential email in:
The email list and search
The Agent
Counts
The email details in the Outlook add-in and the Gmail extension
Output that other people receive never includes confidential email. This is true even when a project owner or lead set up the output:
Scheduled reports
Automations
Organization data exports
Exception: the Agent in shared places. In Teams and Slack group chats, and in the Agent's drafts on RFIs and submittals, the Agent uses what the person who asks can see. If a project owner or lead asks there, the answer can include confidential email. The rest of the group then sees it.
Find confidential email
Open the email inbox or the project's Emails tab.
Open the filters. Under Confidential, select one of these:
Confidential
Visible to all
The list shows only email you can see. If you are outside the audience, the filter finds no confidential email.
Detect confidential email automatically
Set up automatic marking (org admins)
In Confidential email, make sure Hide confidential from project members is on.
Turn on Mark confidential email automatically.
Optional: in What counts as confidential, describe what is confidential for your organization. Changes save as you type. You do not need to describe the email or the answer format. Cogram adds them.
To go back to Cogram's instructions, click Reset to default and confirm.
How a new email gets marked
While Hide confidential from project members is on, Cogram decides like this for each new email:
"Already marked" means the conversation has Cogram's Confidential label in Gmail or Confidential category in Outlook, even if someone added it by hand.
With automatic marking off, Cogram does not ask the AI. Only the labels Cogram writes mark an email.
Cogram never clears a mark on its own.
What counts as possibly confidential
The AI check is separate from choosing the email's project. With the default instructions, the AI looks for:
Legal matters: disputes, claims, litigation, correspondence with counsel, settlements, contract terminations, insurance claims.
HR matters: hiring, salaries, performance, discipline, personal health or leave.
Commercial matters: fee schedules.
The AI reads:
The sender and recipients
The subject and body
The labels or categories already on the email
The earlier messages in the conversation
A standard confidentiality disclaimer in an email signature is not enough on its own. When the AI is unsure, it marks the email. If the check fails, it marks the email too. A project owner or lead can clear a wrong mark.
AI decisions can be wrong in both directions. Review marked emails. Mark sensitive conversations yourself when you know they are confidential.
What happens to a marked email
It is filed as usual. Cogram files it automatically when it is confident about the project. Otherwise it shows a suggestion for you to confirm.
Its filed copies are marked Confidential in every project of your organization that holds the email.
It gets a Confidential marker in your mailbox: a Confidential label in Gmail, or a Confidential category in Outlook. Your other labels and categories do not change.
Only the email's audience sees the marked copies. See Who sees and marks confidential email.
Confidential labels in Gmail
Only the labels Cogram writes mark an email. A label of your own, such as Legal - Confidential, marks nothing.
Project labels are set in Organization settings > Emails, under Gmail: Apply Gmail labels turns them on, and Filing labels sets the root label and its color.
Does not use project labels in Gmail
Confidential
Uses project labels in Gmail
The project label with - Confidential added, for example Cogram filed/246789 - Boston Skyscraper - Confidential. No separate Confidential label.
With project labels, a Confidential label of your own marks nothing.
When you confirm a suggestion, Cogram marks its filed copy if the conversation carries one of these labels.
Mark a conversation confidential in Gmail
Use this when you know a conversation is confidential, for example an email about a claim on a curtain wall package.
Prerequisites
The Cogram extension for Chrome is installed and signed in, and your Gmail account is connected to Cogram.
Hide confidential from project members is on for your organization.
You are an organization admin, or an owner or lead of at least one active team project. Owning only your own My Workspace does not count. Other users do not see the button.
The conversations are filed to a project. The button does not appear for a conversation that is not filed.
Steps
Open the conversation in Gmail, or select several conversations in the list.
At the top of the Cogram panel, click the visibility button. It shows an eye for Visible to all.
Click Mark confidential.
Expected result
The button shows a crossed-out eye for Confidential.
The conversations show the Confidential label in Gmail.
Copies already filed to projects you manage are marked Confidential.
New emails in these conversations are marked when they are filed.
File a conversation as confidential in Gmail
When you file from the Cogram panel, point to a project in the list. The row shows two icon buttons. Point to a button to see its name:
File as confidential (crossed-out eye): files the conversations to the project and marks them Confidential in one step. The filed copies are never visible to the whole team, not even for a moment.
File (eye): files the conversations without a mark.
File as confidential has the same prerequisites as Mark confidential. It does not appear when you file as a record (RFI or submittal).
Unmark a conversation in Gmail
Anyone who can mark a conversation can also unmark it. Click the visibility button, then Mark visible to all. Cogram then:
Removes the Confidential label from these conversations in your mailbox.
Clears the mark from their filed copies in projects you manage.
Other recipients' mailboxes keep their labels. New emails they receive in the conversation are still marked until someone removes the label there.
Mark a filed email in Cogram
Prerequisites
Hide confidential from project members is on for your organization.
You are an organization admin, or an owner or lead of the email's project.
Steps
Open the email in Emails.
Click the visibility button next to the email's actions, then Mark confidential.
To mark several emails at once, select them in the list and click Visibility.
Expected result
The email shows a crossed-out eye in the email list. Only its audience sees it.
If the email was filed from Gmail with project labels, its project label in Gmail changes to match within a few minutes.
To clear the mark, choose Mark visible to all.
Mark an email confidential in Outlook
Prerequisites
The Cogram add-in is installed in Outlook and signed in.
Hide confidential from project members is on for your organization.
You are an organization admin, or an owner or lead of at least one active team project. Other users do not see the button.
Steps
Open the email in Outlook.
In the Cogram add-in, click Mark confidential.
Expected result
The email gets the Confidential category. The category marks this email only. Outlook does not copy it onto replies.
The email's filed copies in projects you manage are marked Confidential.
On an email that has the category, the add-in shows Mark visible to all.
Mark visible to all removes the category from your mailbox and clears the mark from the email's filed copies. Other recipients keep their own Confidential category.
Troubleshooting
Symptom: A team member still sees an email you expected to be confidential. Likely cause: Someone added the category in Outlook after the email was filed. The filed copy has no mark. Fix: Open the email in Cogram and mark it Confidential, or click Mark confidential in the Outlook add-in.
Symptom: You don't see Mark confidential on an email in Cogram. Likely cause: You are not an owner or lead of the email's project or an organization admin. Or Hide confidential from project members is off for your organization. Fix: Ask a project owner or lead, or an organization admin, to mark the email.
Symptom: Filing a confidential email as an RFI or submittal fails. Likely cause: The whole team sees RFIs and submittals, so Cogram does not create one from confidential email. The email itself stays filed. Fix: If the RFI is meant for the whole team, choose Mark visible to all on the email first, or ask a project owner or lead to do it.
Symptom: The Mark confidential button does not appear in Gmail or Outlook. Likely cause: Confidential email is not enabled for your organization. Or you are not an organization admin or an owner or lead of an active team project. Fix: Ask an organization admin to mark the conversation, or to turn on Hide confidential from project members. If the setting is missing, contact Cogram support.
Symptom: The panel says some conversations could not be changed, for example "2 conversations couldn't be changed. Try again to retry them. The rest are done." Likely cause: Gmail refused the change, for example because the conversation no longer exists. Fix: Click the visibility button again. Its tooltip reads Retry: and your choice, for example Retry: Mark confidential. Cogram retries only the conversations that failed. If it still fails, reconnect Gmail in Account Settings > Integrations.
Symptom: An email that is not confidential is marked Confidential. Likely cause: The AI marks an email when it is unsure. Fix: Choose Mark visible to all on the email in Cogram, or ask a project owner or lead to do it. Then remove the Confidential label or category in your mailbox. If this happens often, ask an organization admin to make the instructions in What counts as confidential more specific.
Limits
A mark hides the email from then on. It does not undo what already happened:
An export someone already downloaded
An Agent answer already given
An RFI already created from the email
Next steps
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