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This page is written for a security or privacy review. It covers the add-in itself, and the separate Microsoft mailbox connection, which is a distinct consent.

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What the add-in can access in the mailbox

The manifest declares a single permission, ReadItem, and activates the add-in only on message items in read form.
What the add-in reads. The properties and body of the message the user currently has open, plus attachment metadata. It does not browse other messages, read other folders, or access mail the user has not opened. Drafting. When you run a draft action, the add-in places the draft text and any documents you selected into an Outlook reply form for you to review. The manifest declares a message compose command surface for this flow. The add-in never sends mail on your behalf. What leaves the mailbox. When the pane runs a workup on a message, it sends the following to plastics.com:
  • Subject
  • Sender address, and the To and Cc addresses
  • Message body, in both plain text and HTML
  • Outlook conversation ID and item ID
  • Attachment metadata only: file name, content type, and size
Attachment file contents are not read or transmitted by the add-in. Workup and draft results are cached briefly (ten minutes) so that reopening the same message does not re-process it.
Entity highlighting is left enabled in the manifest, which is Outlook’s default behaviour for mail add-ins.

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Where that data is processed

The payload described above is sent over HTTPS to plastics.com and processed there, authenticated as the signed-in user.
  • Classification, field extraction, and drafting use large language models. The subject and body of the message you have open are included in the content sent for processing. This applies to the workup that runs when you open the pane, and to both draft actions.
  • Material matching runs against the catalog scoped to your organization.
  • Results are cached for ten minutes, keyed to the message, as described above.
If your review requires a named list of model providers and their locations, or a formal data retention period, request it from your account contact. Those commitments are not described here.

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Optional: connecting the mailbox for deeper features

Separately from the add-in, plastics.com offers a Microsoft mailbox connection. This is a distinct Microsoft Entra ID OAuth consent and is not required to install or use the add-in.
  • Delegated scopes requested: Mail.Send, Mail.Read, Mail.ReadWrite, offline_access, openid, profile.
  • It supports a tenant-wide admin consent flow, after which individual users connect their own mailbox. Users can disconnect at any time.
  • With the mailbox connected, the workup can pull the rest of the conversation thread for better extraction rather than relying only on the message body in the pane. Opening the pane also triggers a rate-limited mailbox poll.
  • Without it, the workup falls back to the text of the open message. Nothing breaks.
Treat these two consents as separate line items in a security review. Installing the add-in does not grant any of the scopes above.

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For your IT administrator

Identity

The add-in authenticates users against plastics.com in an Outlook dialog. It does not use Exchange identity tokens or single sign-on against your tenant. Add-in access is therefore governed by your plastics.com user accounts and roles.

Mailbox permission

The manifest declares ReadItem and activates on message read forms. It does not request delete or cross-folder access. Draft text and attachments are placed into an Outlook compose form that the user reviews and sends; the add-in does not send mail itself.

Hosting

The pane is a web page served over HTTPS from your plastics.com workspace origin, loaded by Outlook at runtime. Clients need outbound HTTPS to that origin, to Microsoft’s Office.js CDN, and to the identity domains listed in Setup.

Updates

The add-in ID is stable across releases, so updating the manifest never requires users to reinstall. If you deployed by URL, Microsoft 365 picks up changes on its own polling schedule.

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Data flow summary

  1. User opens a message and clicks the ribbon button.
  2. Office.js hands the pane the open message’s subject, addresses, body, IDs, and attachment metadata.
  3. The pane posts that payload to plastics.com over HTTPS, authenticated as the signed-in user.
  4. plastics.com classifies the email and extracts the request fields using large language models, then matches materials against the catalog scoped to your organization.
  5. Results are returned to the pane and cached for ten minutes.
  6. Drafts, when requested, are generated server side by a language model and returned to the pane, which places them into an Outlook reply form. Sending stays with the user.