Web Search

Transparency is central to us at Intric. When you use the Web Search tool, specific processes are involved to retrieve current information from the internet securely.

This article describes technically how your request is handled, which sub-suppliers are used, and exactly what data is shared at each step.

Flow overview

The process from your question to a finished answer occurs through interaction between the Intric platform, the LLM provider selected for the assistant, and our European sub-supplier LinkUp.

Step-by-step: How your data is handled

1. User
   You ask a question (Input).

   • Input: Your prompt, chat history, and any attached files.
   • Example: “Summarize the government’s priorities”.

2. Selected assistant model (LLM Provider)
   The model determines that a tool should be used.

   • Reasoning: “The user wants me to summarize the government’s priorities; I need to find them first”.
   • Action: The model sends a request to Intric to use the web search tool.

3. Intric (Server)
   Intric’s server receives the API request from the LLM. The server then makes an API call to the web search tool with the search query the LLM has suggested.

4. Web search tool (LinkUp)
   The search service receives the call.

   • Input: The search query (e.g., “Government priorities”).
   • Output: ID, Title, URL (the page the information was retrieved from) and Content (all text on the page).
   • The result is sent back to Intric’s server. The sequence is deleted immediately.

5. Intric (Server)
   Intric receives the results from the web search and forwards them to the LLM.

6. Selected assistant model (LLM Provider)
   The model processes all information to create your answer.

   • Input: Everything from the web search tool’s output + your original input.
   • Task: Create the summary/compilation.
   • Output: A compilation summarized according to your instructions.

7. User
   You receive the final result (the summary) presented in the assistant’s window in Intric.

Data sharing and privacy

To protect your and your organization’s privacy, we apply the principle of data minimization. This means external parties only get access to the information that is absolutely necessary to perform the task.

LinkUp acts as a sub-supplier to Intric to perform the web search. LinkUp is a French company with servers in Europe. In the table below, you see exactly what data is sent to LinkUp and what is not.

The processing of the search sent to LinkUp is stateless, meaning the search sequence is deleted immediately after the result is delivered. No search data is saved over time. This is strictly regulated in Intric’s DPA with LinkUp.

Summary

When you use Web Search, your data is secure. Your complete context stays between Intric and your LLM provider. The search partner LinkUp sees only an isolated search term, handles the data within the EU, and deletes it immediately after the search is performed.