FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Questions and answers
Does it copy our documents?
No. It records who has access to what: permissions, group memberships, sharing links and the changes to them. It does not copy the content of your files. File names and locations are kept because they are needed to explain access, and they stay in your own database.
What do you receive from us?
Only what licensing and updates need: your license key, which installation and Microsoft 365 tenant it belongs to, the product version and how many licensed users you have (one number). Never permissions, users, groups, sites, files or audit records. What reaches us
What access does it need to our tenant?
A Global Administrator approves it during setup, and setup removes its own access when it is done. It reads sites, permissions, users, groups, the apps that have access to SharePoint, and the audit log, and never changes permissions, sharing or content. SharePoint shows who has access to a site only to an app with full control, so it asks for SharePoint full control (Sites.FullControl.All).
Where does it run?
On your own Windows servers, on-premises or in an Azure virtual machine, with your own SQL Server database. What you need
Does it need internet access?
Outbound only: to Microsoft 365, to read, and once a day to us, to check the license. Nothing on the internet needs to reach your servers. There is no offline mode.
How far back can it see?
From the day you install it: its first full scan is where history starts. For earlier dates it says it does not know rather than guessing.
Will scanning disrupt our tenant?
It follows Microsoft's limits: when Microsoft asks it to slow down, it waits and continues later. Large tenants take longer to scan as a result.
How quickly do changes show up?
Within minutes of Microsoft publishing them. Microsoft can take hours to publish some audit events, so the Dashboard shows how up to date the record is, and answers are corrected when late events arrive.
How is it licensed?
By the number of Microsoft 365 users in your tenant who have a license assigned, paid up front for one, three or five years. Every tier includes the whole product, and a 60-day evaluation runs on your own servers. Pricing
Is there a hosted version?
Not today. Access Witness runs on your own servers. A hosted edition is on our roadmap; no date is set.
Do you hold security certifications?
Not today, and we will only say so here once one is independently verified. For your security review, ask us and we'll answer in writing. Ask a security question
Take control of SharePoint access history
Stop reconstructing SharePoint permissions manually.
See how Access Witness records SharePoint permissions as they change and answers who had access on any past date, on a server you control.
Private deployment. Customer-controlled SQL database. Outbound-only connectivity.