Security / IT FAQs

Common security and IT questions, all in one place.

Does the Olive Helps app have any software dependencies?

No. The Olive Helps desktop app is built using Go (Golang) and a web technology wrapper and is not dependent upon external runtime environments such as the JVM, NET CLR, or a script interpreter.

Can a Loop call out to a third party API?

Yes, Loops can be written to communicate with third party APIs or APIs hosted on the servers of the Loop Authors. Olive will require and enforce that these Loops follow standards around communication security, clearly documenting what information is sent to the API, that appropriate high availability and auditing capabilities are deployed, and that the service is HIPAA compliant or better. Loops have to declare where they are making requests, and what that information presented to the user is before installing the Loop. This information is enforced at runtime and the information is limited to the domain, method, and frequency of the API call and excludes the contents of the request.

What happens if a Loop is found to be problematic (nefarious, performance impacting, usability issues, etc)?

If a Loop or a specific version of a Loop is found to be a problem, Olive is able to remotely remove a Loop from all instances of Olive Helps in near-real-time to mitigate any further issues. If this occurs, users of the Loop will be notified in Olive Helps that a Loop has been removed.

Does Olive Helps encrypt data in flight and at rest?

Yes, like any other Olive product, we always ensure data is encrypted in flight and at rest. This applies both to the locally running Olive Helps desktop application and to any Olive services it interacts with. All network traffic uses HTTPS (TLS 1.2) and data stored in our HIPAA cloud is encrypted using SHA256. Even third-party Loops are ensured to only communicate over HTTPS.

Since Olive Helps comes with a keyboard sensor, will it record typed passwords?

As mentioned in the User Data: What happens to all that sensed data? Olive Helps does not record everything someone types. However, it will sense and locally process passwords just as it processes everything else that is typed. A typed or copied password could be passed to a Loop, which in turn could pass it to an associated API if that Loop decides the string in question meets the criteria to be sent. Olive Helps doesn’t currently have the ability to enforce Loops to ignore passwords, though it is best practice for Loop Authors to write Loops which only react to sensed text in certain contexts. For example, if you’re validating patient phone numbers, then you only want to handle the text you see if the person is currently looking at the scheduling view in the EMR.

Please note: Determining if best practices have been followed is part of the Loop review process.

Can I disable a specific Sensor?

You cannot disable specific Sensors inside of Olive Helps. Every Loop will clearly define which Sensors it needs access to in order to function, so you can always decide not to install Loops that utilize specific sensors if you choose to. If there are certain tasks that you don't want a Loop to watch, you can pause that Loop.

You can always quit the Olive Helps app if you don't want the Loop to watch something deemed too sensitive. It's worth noting that some of the Sensors that Olive Helps uses require OS-level permissions (say for keyboard recording). It is not recommended, but there are certain Sensors that you could render inoperable by removing the OS-level permission.

How long does Olive retain logs? Are there any size limitations or costs for long-term log retention?

Cloud service logs and user authentication logs have no retention or size limitations. These logs are retained in perpetuity at no extra cost to the customer. Metrics and crash reporting logs may be purged as frequently as every 90 days. Olive does not offer a way for any logs to be sent to a customer.

How much CPU does Olive Helps use?

Typical CPU usage for Olive Helps is less than 5% and is not typically affected by having more Loops installed. When in use, CPU can spike to 50% or more depending on actions you might be taking within a particular Loop. See system requirements on the installation details page for more on CPU requirements.

How much memory (RAM) does Olive Helps use?

The base installation of Olive Helps typically uses less than 150 MB or RAM. Memory usage by Loops can vary, but you can assume around 25 MB per installed Loop on average. See system requirements on the installation details page for more on memory requirements.

How much disk space does Olive Helps use?

The installer is about 100 MB. Installed, Olive Helps is about 600 MB. Each Loop installed will vary, but they tend to be less than 1MB each. If a user uses Sidenote, those notes are stored as encrypted text and take up very little space per note (dependent on note size) and grows with usage. In total, you should expect to be able to run Olive Helps with under 1GB of space.

How much network bandwidth does Olive Helps use?

When idle, Olive Helps typically uses less than 200 Bytes/s, which comes out to less than 6 MB of data transfer within an 8 hour work day.

As with the other answers about system usage, interacting with specific Loops will have their own bandwidth implications. Most Loops would use low levels of data (think less than 1 MB per regular interaction), but some Loops could be more network intensive. For example, a Loop that streams medical imaging training videos would obviously have very different usage and requirements than a Loop that looks up ICD-10 codes.

When an update for Olive Helps is available, that update will be downloaded in the background. A normal update would be around 100 MB. Although you won't need fast internet to accommodate this download because it's a non-blocking background operation, it will need to transfer 100 MB over your network.