The Figma plugin is run directly from Figma's own servers, and runs inside of a your Figma file, which means that it inherits all of the security and infrastructure of the Figma platform, which exceed industry standards for data protection and security:

  • SOC 2 Type 2
  • SOC 3
  • Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) STAR: Level 1
  • ISO/IEC 27001:2013
  • ISO/IEC 27018:2019
  • EU Cloud Code of Conduct (COC): Level 2

There's no additional software that needs to be installed to use the Figma plugin, as Figma plugins run as a built-in part of Figma's own native functionality, and all Figma plugins easily accessibile and can be instantly run from inside any Figma file, or via the official Figma Community ecosystem inside of the Figma app.

If your organization is already approved to use Figma, then you already have access to Figma plugins.

How Commentful works

The Commentful Figma plugin uses the Figma Plugins API and the Figma REST API to load in the Figma comments from your current file and allow them to be organized within the plugin’s user interface.

It also allows users to keep a todo list of tasks, which are stored inside of the Figma file itself via the Figma Plugins API, and are never uploaded, stored or used outside of the plugin.

You can also optionally create “Review” links, which allows users to optionally create password-protected URLs, which can be shared (by their choice) with any stakeholders to allow them to provide feedback on designs without needing a Figma account via the Commentful web app.

Any uploads and cloud storage services used by the Commentful Plugin and Commentful Web App are hosted on Google Cloud (the same infrastructure that Google hosts all of its own products with), via Google Firebase.

As per the Privacy and Security in Firebase, all Firebase services (aside from App Indexing) have successfully completed the ISO 27001 and SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3 evaluation process, and some have also completed the ISO 27017 and ISO 27018 certification process.

What Commentful does and doesn’t do

Commentful uses the Figma Plugins API and the Figma REST API to load in the Figma comments from your current file and allow them to be organized within the plugin’s user interface.

Commentful does

  • Allow users to connect their Figma file to the plugin via the official Figma REST API to be able to read and post Figma comments in the current on the current Figma user’s behalf.
  • Encrypt any image uploads with AES-256.
  • Download Excel (.xlsx) file exports of comments, todos and feedback files directly to the user’s computer.
  • Allow users to optionally create password-protected “Review” links that can be shared with stakeholders.

Commentful does not

  • Share any comments, todos or other data from your Figma file design.
  • Make any password-protected “Review” URLs created via the plugin publicly accessible or indexed by any search engines.
  • Collect or store any personal information (Figma plugins cannot access any private information about Figma projects, Figma teams or Figma users).

How Figma plugins work

Figma plugins are written in HTML/CSS/Javascript, and are run in a tightly controlled sandbox environment inside of the main Figma application.

Figma plugins can only do whatever Figma allows them to do inside the permissions of the Figma Plugins API, and importantly, plugins don't have any access to personal information about the Figma user running the plugin.

What Figma plugins can and can't do

As per the article on Figma plugin security, there are a limited number of things that Figma plugins can do, and many more things that they can't do:

Figma plugins can

  • Only be run by an explicit user action
  • Show UI in a single plugin-specific dialog
  • Read any data in your Figma document (e.g. a “find layer by name” plugin)
  • Modify any data in your Figma document (e.g. a “rename selected layers” plugin)
  • Communicate with any server over the internet (e.g. an “import from service X” plugin)

Figma plugins cannot

  • Run by themselves
  • Get information about the project or team that owns the file
  • Access anything when they aren’t running
  • Access data from any files other than the file they were run in
  • Change Figma’s UI outside of the plugin UI dialog

Figma account administrators at your company can configure an allowlist of plugins that are allowed inside the organization. This can be used to prevent untrusted Figma plugins from being run in any file in that organization.