Integration Security & Compliance

This guide explains how Cognism uses OAuth 2.0 to securely connect with your CRM and other tools. 

It covers how data access is controlled, how tokens are used, and how Cognism ensures integrations remain secure, permission-based, and compliant.

How Cognism secures integrations

Cognism uses OAuth 2.0 to connect to your CRM and other supported tools. OAuth 2.0 is an industry-standard authorisation framework that allows Cognism to access specific data without sharing your login credentials.

When you choose to connect Cognism to a CRM or other tool, you grant access during the integration setup. This access is limited to the data required for the integration to function.

Cognism cannot access data outside of the permissions you approve.

How OAuth 2.0 works in Cognism

OAuth 2.0 works by exchanging secure tokens between Cognism and your connected tool. These tokens control what Cognism can access and for how long.

Cognism uses two types of tokens:

• Access token

This token allows Cognism to access the approved data in your connected tool.

It is time-limited and typically expires after 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the integration.

• Refresh token

This token allows Cognism to generate a new access token when the previous one expires.

Refresh tokens are stored securely and are never exposed to users.

Cognism does not store your CRM login credentials.

How Cognism uses your data during integrations

Integrations in the Cognism app are used to export Cognism data into your connected tool, such as a CRM or marketing platform.

When exporting data, Cognism:

• Checks existing records in your connected tool
• Matches Cognism data with your existing records
• Updates existing records or creates new ones, based on your integration settings

This ensures data is exported accurately and according to your configuration.

How record matching works

Some Cognism features check whether a record already exists in your CRM. To do this, Cognism temporarily accesses relevant fields in your connected tool and compares them with Cognism data.

Cognism:

• Uses this access only to support features you have enabled
• Does not store the accessed CRM data
• Does not process the data for any purpose outside the selected features

Connecting a CRM or other tool is optional and always under your control.

Expected results

After setting up an integration:

• Cognism can securely export data to your connected tool
• Existing records are updated, or new records are created based on your settings
• Data access remains limited, time-bound, and permission-based

Learn more about OAuth 2.0

If you want a deeper understanding of OAuth 2.0 and how authorisation works, you can read an external overview of OAuth 2.0.