Your role as organisation administrator

A secure and usable application is a good start. How Databeamer is set up and used inside your organisation matters too.

As organisation administrator you make sure Databeamer fits the way you work together. You deal with the set-up, user management and the available capacity. That takes both technical knowledge and insight into the work processes. So preferably involve several people in the administration, for example someone from IT or security and someone who knows the work processes.

What makes Databeamer different #

Databeamer was developed from one key principle: people's privacy and the security of confidential information must be guaranteed from the design onwards. That is not an extra security layer added afterwards, but a basic principle of how the platform works.

• Simple by design. Databeamer has few fixed fields and is, at its core, not a case-management system. It is for collaborating, communicating and exchanging information that people can, may and want to share with each other. The structure is free, so it can follow how people and organisations actually work together.
• European and privacy-focused. Databeamer is a European service. We do not run AI on users' content, carry no advertising on the platform and do not sell data on. See the compliance page for more information on hosting, processors and certifications.
• Readable only by those it is meant for. Content is encrypted on the user's device. Databeamer itself does not have the keys needed to read that content. We use strong cryptography, including a hybrid combination of classical and post-quantum cryptography (PQC), to better protect data against future threats from quantum computers as well. See Welcome to Databeamer for more explanation.

This architecture affects administration. The organisation decides who gets access to information and is responsible for the set-up and administration of its groups. Databeamer provides the underlying service and security architecture. Databeamer cannot create or recover user accounts on a user's behalf.

The organisation and its roles #

The organisation is responsible for the Databeamer plan, its users and the available capacity. Groups are created and managed from the organisation.

An organisation has three roles:

Role	Responsible for
Owner	The organisation and its plan, including single sign-on and appointing other owners.
Admin	Users, groups and organisation settings.
Member	Uses Databeamer within the groups they belong to.

A role can be held by several people. Make sure administration does not depend on a single person. So appoint several people with enough administrative rights. An organisation always has at least one owner.

At group level there is a fourth role: the reader. A reader has access to the content in the group, but cannot add, edit or delete information.

An organisation administrator is not automatically responsible for the content of every group. The owner and admin handle organisation-wide matters; access to and the set-up of individual groups also need attention from the people who manage those groups.

See Organisations for more information on how it works.

Administration is not access #

An organisation administrator has administrative rights at organisation level, but not automatically access to the content of a group. Access to a group is arranged separately: whoever needs the content is added to that group as a member.

This distinction matters for privacy and information security. Administrative rights do not mean you can see every piece of confidential information in the organisation, and that is how it should be.

An organisation administrator does have an overview of the groups at organisation level and sees their names, status and labels. Bear that in mind when choosing names and using metadata: do not include confidential personal data that must not be visible to others.

How is this secured technically?

Every group has its own key set. The keys for the group content are available to that group's members, but not automatically to the organisation owner or admin. The organisation has no general master key with which all group content could be decrypted.

So this is not only a matter of access settings, but also of the cryptographic architecture. See Groups for more information.

Capacity #

Databeamer is offered on a subscription basis. The plan sets agreements on capacity, such as the number of seats, groups, the available storage and any limits on Transfers and Requests and on working with people outside the organisation.

You see the available capacity and usage under Org Settings › Usage. See also Plans and limits.

Keep an eye on whether the organisation stays within the agreements made. When a limit is reached or comes into view, contact us to discuss whether the capacity should be adjusted. Spot it early, so users do not get stuck unexpectedly.

Outside collaborators and guests #

When working with people outside your own organisation, it is important to distinguish between outside collaborators with an account and guests who take part through a specific exchange.

• Outside collaborator. A person from outside the organisation with their own Databeamer account, for example a partner, client or resident. This person only has access to the groups they were invited to, not to the organisation as a whole.
• Guest. Someone without a regular Databeamer account who, for example, receives or sends a Transfer, Request or Secure Mail. Their access is tied to the exchange concerned. See For recipients and senders.

When inviting outside collaborators, bear in mind the plan's capacity agreements. In doubt, check which limits apply to your plan.

What do you check regularly? #

Good administration is not only a matter of setting up the organisation once. Check periodically whether the set-up and agreements still fit practice.

• Administration and continuity: can several people continue the administration if someone is unavailable or leaves?
• Users and access: do users and outside collaborators still have the right access to the groups?
• Groups and ownership: are the group classification, group administrators and participants still up to date?
• Capacity: is there enough room within the plan's agreements?
• Retention and closure: are the agreements on retention periods, closing groups and archiving information clear, and are they followed?

You do not have to do all these checks by hand or continuously. Agree who is responsible for what and how often you go through the different parts.

See Manage and review the environment for a more extensive checklist and information on periodic checks.

Read on #

• Set up your organisation: from use cases and group classification to folder structure and labels.
• Roll Databeamer out to your users: accounts, recovery phrases, joiners and leavers, and introduction.
• Manage and review the environment: periodic checks, data subject rights and a practical checklist.