Secure Survey Document Converter: No Drive Access, No Storage, No Training

The Google Drive Access Problem

When you install most document-to-Google Forms tools, you see a permissions screen that reads something like: "This app wants to see, edit, create, and delete all of your Google Drive files." For many users - and for most corporate, healthcare, and research IT teams - this is a non-starter. Granting a third-party application permanent read and write access to your entire Google Drive to convert a single document is a disproportionate permission request, and one that many organisations explicitly prohibit under their data governance policies.

The reason these tools request Drive access is structural: they create the Google Form directly inside your Google Drive, which requires OAuth-level Drive permission to do so. The conversion and form creation both happen inside Google's infrastructure with your Drive credentials active. Even if the vendor's intentions are good, this architecture means a third party holds active credentials that can access your Drive for as long as the app is installed.

Traditional Google Workspace add-ons (Chrome extensions and Drive add-ons specifically) operate this way by design. The permission request is not optional - it is required by how the integration works.

How Pirai AI Handles Google Forms Without Drive Access

Pirai AI uses a different architectural approach for Google Forms output that eliminates the Drive permission requirement entirely. Instead of creating the Google Form inside your Drive, Pirai AI generates a Google Apps Script file - a plain text file containing JavaScript code that, when you run it yourself inside Google Forms, builds the complete survey structure programmatically.

The process works in three steps:

Step 1: Upload your document. Drag and drop your Word document, PDF, or Excel file directly on the Pirai AI platform at platform.piraiai.com. No Google account connection, no Drive authorisation, no OAuth prompt.

Step 2: Receive the Apps Script file. Pirai AI reads your document, extracts the survey structure (questions, answer options, question types, blocks), and generates a text file containing a pre-populated Google Apps Script. This file is downloaded to your device. Pirai AI's role ends here - your document has been processed and destroyed. Nothing is sent to Google at this point.

Step 3: Run the script in your own Google Forms. Open a blank Google Form in your own Google account. Open the Apps Script editor (via the three-dot menu, top right). Paste the code from the downloaded file. Click Run. The script runs under your own Google account credentials - your form, your Drive, your account. No third party ever touches your Drive.

The result is a fully structured Google Form built entirely by your own Google account, from a script you ran yourself. Pirai AI never held Drive permissions, never authenticated with your Google account, and never had access to any of your Drive content.

In-Memory Document Processing

Beyond the Google Forms workflow, Pirai AI's document handling is designed around a no-storage principle. When you upload a survey document to the platform, it is processed entirely in-memory - the document is read, the survey structure is extracted, and the platform output files are generated in a single processing session. The document is not written to a database, not stored on a file server, and not retained after the conversion is complete.

This matters for several reasons. First, it means there is no server-side document repository that could be breached. If an attacker compromised the server, they would find no stored documents - only the infrastructure itself. Second, it means there is no retention period to manage. You do not need to submit a deletion request or trust that a vendor will honour their data retention policy. The document simply does not exist on the server after conversion. Third, it eliminates the risk of document content appearing in logs, analytics, or audit trails that could be accessed by Pirai AI staff or subprocessors.

For organisations handling proprietary survey instruments - validated clinical scales, commercially sensitive market research questionnaires, confidential employee survey scripts - this in-memory architecture is a material security difference compared to tools that store uploaded documents in cloud storage buckets.

No AI Model Training on Your Content

Pirai AI uses the OpenAI API to power its document extraction and survey structuring. The OpenAI API - distinct from OpenAI's consumer products like ChatGPT - provides explicit API-level controls that allow operators to opt out of using API inputs and outputs for model training. Pirai AI has these controls explicitly enabled.

This means the content of documents you upload to Pirai AI - question text, answer options, survey logic, and any other content in your document - is not used to train OpenAI's models or improve Pirai AI's product. Your survey instrument is processed to produce a conversion output and then discarded. It does not become training data.

This distinction matters because many AI-powered tools do not specify whether their API usage includes training opt-outs. For healthcare teams uploading HCAHPS instruments, research teams uploading IRB-approved questionnaires, or MR agencies uploading client survey scripts, the confirmation that content is not used for model training is an important part of the privacy picture.

Security for Qualtrics, REDCap, and Other Platforms

The same in-memory processing and no-storage architecture applies to all 27+ platform outputs, not just Google Forms. When you convert a Word document to a Qualtrics QSF file, the document is processed in-memory and the QSF is returned for download. When you convert to REDCap data dictionary format, the same applies. No intermediate file is stored server-side between document upload and output download.

For organisations using Qualtrics, the output is a QSF file you import directly into your own Qualtrics account through the standard Qualtrics survey import interface. Pirai AI never connects to your Qualtrics account, never touches your Qualtrics API credentials, and has no access to your survey library. The same is true for REDCap: the output is a data dictionary Excel file you import through REDCap's own data import tool, with no Pirai AI connection to your REDCap instance.

For Forsta, Alchemer, LimeSurvey, SurveyMonkey, and all other supported platforms, the workflow is identical: document in, platform-ready file out, no server-side connection to your account on the target platform. Your survey data stays in your platforms. Pirai AI is a conversion layer, not an integration layer.

Who This Matters Most To

Healthcare and clinical research teams. Uploading a patient satisfaction survey instrument, a validated clinical scale (PHQ-9, HCAHPS, PROMIS), or an IRB-approved questionnaire to a third-party tool that stores documents raises immediate HIPAA and research ethics concerns. Even when the document does not contain patient data, a survey instrument used in regulated research is considered a sensitive asset. In-memory processing and explicit OpenAI training opt-outs address the primary concerns for clinical teams evaluating document conversion tools.

Market research agencies. Client survey scripts are commercially sensitive. An agency uploading a client's brand tracking questionnaire, pricing research instrument, or new product concept test to a tool that stores documents is potentially exposing proprietary client research. MR agencies operating under NDA with clients need assurance that uploaded documents do not persist beyond the conversion session.

Enterprise and corporate IT environments. Large organisations with formal vendor risk management programmes evaluate third-party tools against data handling standards before approving them for use. A survey conversion tool that never stores documents, never requests Drive permissions, and has documented AI training opt-outs is significantly easier to approve through a corporate security review than a tool that creates files in your Drive or retains uploaded documents.

Academic researchers. Universities handling IRB-approved research instruments have ethical obligations regarding the security of research materials. Research teams using validated instruments that are still under publisher embargo, or instruments developed for unpublished studies, need assurance that uploading the instrument for conversion does not create a risk of premature disclosure.

HR and people teams. Employee engagement survey scripts, exit survey questionnaires, and 360 feedback instruments contain questions that reflect the organisation's internal priorities and cultural concerns. These documents are not typically appropriate for upload to tools with unclear data retention practices.

Frequently Asked Questions