# Your data stays yours. Middleout uses it to answer, and doesn't keep it.

Middleout queries your data to answer and doesn't keep a copy. What it keeps is what it needs to understand it: what each column means, how each metric is calculated and what your team decided.

## Your data doesn't stay in Middleout

Databases like BigQuery are queried where they live. To query a spreadsheet, Middleout uses a temporary copy that it deletes shortly after.

## We keep the context

What Middleout keeps is what gives your data meaning: which tables exist, what each column means, how each metric is calculated and what your team decided.

## Read-only

Middleout can't modify your sources: it reads BigQuery, Drive and Sheets with read-only permissions.

## Each person sees their own

Each person sees only what their permissions allow. An assistant like Claude or ChatGPT, connected to Middleout, sees the same as the person who connected it.

## Every number shows its source

Every answer says which definition it used, which tables it queried and how recent the data is. If something doesn't add up, you can see where.

## Disconnect whenever you want

You remove Middleout's access from your Google or GitHub account, and an assistant's from Settings.

## Questions about this

### Can Middleout modify my data?

No. Middleout is read-only: it can't modify your data or your sources.

### Which sources can I connect?

BigQuery and Google Sheets to query data; Google Drive for documents, presentations and meeting recordings; and GitHub for repositories and their documentation.