Data Security at Terno
Terno is built with a security first philosophy, designed specifically for enterprises operating at global scale and handling mission critical data. Below is a detailed overview of how Terno ensures data privacy, isolation, and deterministic enforcement of security controls without compromise.
How Terno Achieves State-of-the-Art Accuracy
Deployed Inside Your Private Cloud
Terno runs entirely within an organizations’ private cloud or on premise infrastructure. All data remains within your network boundary, governed by your IAM, firewall, and compliance policies. There is no data movement to external SaaS systems or third party servers.
No Data Shared with LLMs
Terno follows a strict separation between enterprise data and AI models. Only controlled metadata such as table structure and relationships may be shared with the LLM. Actual data values, records, and sensitive fields are never exposed.
Support for Private LLMs
Terno can be configured to use private or self hosted LLMs. This provides full control over model selection, inference behavior, logging, and compliance requirements.
Fine Grained Access Control
Access can be restricted at the table, column, and row levels. This enables precise enforcement of role based access, regional isolation, and business unit specific visibility consistently across all analytics workflows.
One Way Encrypted Yet Analyzable Fields
Sensitive fields can be stored using irreversible one way encryption. While the raw values remain unreadable, the data can still be safely used for aggregations, grouping, and analytics ensuring privacy without sacrificing insight.
Object Renaming & Logical Abstraction
Database objects can be logically renamed or abstracted before exposure to users or AI models. This protects internal schema design, proprietary logic, and sensitive business semantics.
Deterministic, Non AI Security Layer
All queries pass through a hardened, deterministic query transpiler that enforces security policies before execution. Security enforcement is rule based and auditable, not dependent on AI behavior ensuring zero leakage and zero bypass.
Architecture of Terno
Terno’s architecture blends modular intelligence with secure, semantic access to enterprise data. It is designed for scalability, extensibility, and precision across diverse tools and databases.
Metastore
The Metastore holds business knowledge, provided by experts or learned automatically from your data, to generate accurate, context-aware SQL. Keeps the data catalog up to date and continuously improves query relevance.
SQLShield
A deterministic security layer that sanitizes queries, enforces RBAC, and prevents unsafe SQL execution before queries reach the database. Optimizes query generation while protecting against injection and misuse.
Semantic Layer on Databases
Terno adds a semantic layer on top of databases, enabling searches based on meaning rather than exact keywords. This allows queries like “blue jeans” to match related data such as “navy denims”.
Multi-database intelligence
Terno can analyze across multiple databases and data sources in a single query, relational databases, ERPs, and files. Works with PostgreSQL, MySQL, BigQuery, ERPs like Odoo, and files such as CSV, Excel, and PDFs.
Artifact Store
Intermediate outputs such as datasets, models, queries, charts, and code are stored as reusable artifacts. This accelerates analysis and allows teams to build on verified work.
Enterprise tooling augmentation
Terno integrates with internal tools and workflows such as APIs, schedulers, and notifications. Example: automatically send reports, trigger jobs, or call internal systems.
Trusted by Teams Worldwide
See what our customers are saying about Terno AI
"We integrated Terno with our ERP system about 6 months ago, the impact has been immediate. It's intuitive, fast and surprisingly powerful. What used to take days can now be done in minutes."
"We were concerned about data security, but Terno has proven to be both secure and incredibly user-friendly. It's transformed how we use our ERP data daily."
"I was skeptical at first, but Terno blew me away. It not only bridges the gap between business users and complex data, we've seen a noticeable drop in dependency on data engineers."
"It’s been a while since we started using Terno in our organization. It has significantly sped up our workflow, and everyone on my team now feels empowered with AI."
"As a data scientist, Terno has completely changed the way I work. I can query complex data effortlessly and make decisions faster than ever."
Incident response & responsible data handling
Terno follows a documented incident response process covering monitoring, detection, containment, and recovery, and reports security incidents to the relevant providers and customers as required. Data from connected sources is accessed read-only and handled under strict controls.
Encrypted everywhere
All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest; access tokens and credentials are stored encrypted.
Least-privilege access
Access to production data is restricted by role and business need, and administrative actions are logged.
Read-only connectors
Connected advertising and analytics sources are accessed read-only through official APIs. Terno never modifies your accounts.
Secrets kept safe
Credentials and keys live in managed secret stores, never in source control, and never shared publicly.
Monitoring & alerting
Systems are monitored for anomalous access and threats, with alerts routed to an on-call responder.
No onward sharing
Your data is not sold or shared with third parties beyond the vetted sub-processors needed to deliver the service.
To report a security concern, contact reachus@terno.ai.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
Quick answers about security, setup, accuracy and pricing.
What is an AI data science tool?
An AI data science tool is software that lets people ask questions about their data in plain English and get back an answer computed from real analysis, instead of writing SQL or code by hand. Terno AI is an AI data science tool built specifically for enterprises, with security and governance built in.
How is Terno AI different from ChatGPT or other AI tools?
Unlike generic AI models, Terno AI is built for analytics. It understands your database schema, enforces access controls, and generates highly accurate SQL queries tailored to your data. It also integrates directly with your database, allowing real-time insights.
Who can benefit from Terno AI?
Terno AI is designed for technical and non-technical business users, data teams, and decision-makers who need quick and accurate insights without relying on SQL experts or waiting for reports.
Does Terno AI require coding knowledge?
No. Terno AI is designed to be fully no-code. Users can simply type their queries in plain English, and Terno will generate and execute the correct SQL automatically.
Can Terno AI handle large datasets and complex queries?
Absolutely. Terno is built for enterprise-scale databases, handling large datasets and complex joins efficiently without slowing down performance.
Is my data secure with Terno AI?
Yes. Terno runs inside your private cloud or on-premise infrastructure so your data never leaves your network. Only controlled metadata is shared with the underlying LLM, never raw data values or sensitive fields.
Does Terno AI store or share my data with third parties?
No. Terno does not share your enterprise data with external LLM providers. You can also connect your own private or self-hosted LLM for full control over inference and compliance.
Can Terno AI be deployed on-premise or in a private cloud?
Yes. Terno supports full on-premise and private cloud deployment, so your infrastructure and data boundaries stay fully within your control.
Which databases and data sources does Terno AI support?
Terno connects to PostgreSQL, MySQL, BigQuery, Databricks, Snowflake, ERPs like Odoo, and files such as CSV, Excel, and PDF with more integrations added regularly.
How long does it take to set up Terno AI?
Setting up a standard database connection takes only a few minutes, allowing teams to get instant answers without weeks of traditional BI onboarding.
How is Terno AI different from BI tools like Tableau or Power BI?
Traditional BI tools require pre-built dashboards and technical setup for every new question. Terno lets anyone ask a new question in plain English and get an answer on the spot, without waiting for a dashboard to be built.
Does Terno AI replace my data analysts?
No. Terno removes the bottleneck of simple, repetitive questions so analysts can focus on deeper strategic work, while non-technical teams get instant answers without waiting in a queue.
How accurate are Terno AI's answers?
Terno does not generate answers from text prediction. It generates and executes real SQL against your actual data, with built-in verification loops checking each response before it is returned.
What happens if Terno AI generates an incorrect query?
Every query runs through rule-based verification layers and AST syntax checks before execution. Detailed audit logs allow technical teams to review, trace, and refine semantic definitions seamlessly.
Is there a free trial or free plan?
Yes. Terno offers a free plan with $20 in free credits on signup and $10 renewed daily, so you can test core features before upgrading.
Do I need to give Terno AI write access to my database?
No. Terno connects with read-only access by default, so there is zero risk to your production data.
Contact
Talk to our team.
Have a question, need a demo, or want help with onboarding or pricing? Send us a message and we'll get back to you shortly.
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Email
reachus@terno.ai - Phone
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Phone
+1 (412) 568-3901 - Address
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Address
9450 SW Gemini Dr, PMB 90168, Beaverton, Oregon 97008-7105, United States