Parliament permissions and privacy FAQ

Parliament allows organizations to empower their employees to share pre-approved and on-brand content easily and efficiently. Hootsuite requires authorization from users to connect to social networks and streamline content sharing in Parliament.

What are social network permissions?

When you connect a social account to Hootsuite, you need to give Hootsuite permission to access the social network on your behalf. Because Hootsuite uses standard permission language provided to us by social networks (like Meta and LinkedIn), we cannot customize these permissions.

Parliament is an extension of our main Hootsuite product. The social network permissions needed to connect social accounts to Parliament are the same as those needed for Hootsuite.

Hootsuite will never automatically share content on your connected social networks unless you have set up auto sharing for Parliament. You are always in full control of your social network accounts.

Why do you list permissions for things I can’t do in Parliament or Hootsuite?

Social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and X, often bundle network permissions together. They do this to keep users informed and to ensure they aren't overwhelmed by in-app permission notices. This grouping means that even when a service like Parliament or Hootsuite only uses a few of their permissions, they require that we include all permissions in that permission group.

Parliament only accesses the minimum amount of information and permissions required for it to work. However, the social networks may allow broader permissions based on the API (Application Programming Interface) they provide Hootsuite for access to t he network, and how they group those permissions.

How does Parliament use LinkedIn permissions?

Parliament inherits the social network permissions required to use Hootsuite, even though it only uses a subset of Hootsuite capabilities. When we request access to your account, LinkedIn provides capabilities based on how it groups permissions together for Hootsuite to use it. Parliament and other Hootsuite products will only access information required to use them, even if LinkedIn and other social networks provide wider capabilities.

LinkedIn permissions for Amplify

Permission	Description	Needed for Parliament
Use your followers’ data so your organization can mention them	This permission allows you to mention your followers in a personalized post that you share.
Retrieve reporting for advertising accounts	This is a standard permission from LinkedIn but it is not required for you to use Parliament. The Parliament app is an extension of the main Hootsuite product and inherits this access. If you have an ad account, we won’t access it if you don’t explicitly connect the ad account.
Retrieve your organization’s posts	This permission allows Parliament to reference content from LinkedIn Company Pages, when your organization has a Linkedin Company Page connected in Parliament. When an organization has content ready to be shared, it is often placed on the organization’s social network page first.
Manage your organizations’ pages and retrieve reporting data	This permission allows Parliament to measure the effectiveness of the information that is being posted through Parliament. For example, Parliament is able to report on how many times a piece of content was shared, how often it was shared, the Parliament user(s) who shared it, and how often it was liked. This only applies when you are an Parliament Administrator.
Create, modify, and delete posts on your behalf	This permission allows Parliament to share content to your public feed. In this instance, LinkedIn also combines the permission with commenting and liking posts. Parliament is able to post the content that you specified to your public feed; it does not inspect your feed, comment on or “like” any content.
Retrieve comments, reactions on your organization’s posts	This permission allows Parliament to measure the effectiveness of the information that is being posted through Parliament. For example, Parliament is able to report on how many times a piece of content was shared, how often it was shared, the Parliament user(s) who shared it, and how often it was liked. This only applies when you are an Parliament Administrator.
Retrieve and manage your organization’s messages	Parliament is an extension of the main Hootsuite product and inherits this access. If you are only an Parliament user, this functionality is not used. Hootsuite does not currently send LinkedIn invitations.
Use primary email address associated with your LinkedIn account	Your email address is provided to any app that you have connected to any of your social network accounts, including Parliament. Parliament uses this information to distinguish social network accounts and share content to the ones you have indicated.
Create, modify, delete posts on your organization’s behalf	This permission is at the organizational level and allows Parliament administrators to create, modify, delete, and refer to content that they want Parliament users to have access to.
Manage your advertising accounts	This is a standard permission from LinkedIn but it is not required for you to use Parliament. Parliament is an extension of the main Hootsuite product and inherits this access. If you have an ad account, we won’t access it if you don’t explicitly connect the ad account.
Use your basic profile	Basic profile information includes what you have set to be public in your profile and includes your name, email address, profile picture. This information is provided to any app that you have connected to any of your social network accounts, including Parliament. Parliament uses this information to distinguish social network accounts and share content to the ones you have indicated.
Create, modify, and delete comments and reactions on your organization’s posts	This is a standard permission from LinkedIn but it is not required for you to use Parliament. Parliament is an extension of the main Hootsuite product and inherits this access.
Retrieve your organization’s pages and their reporting data	This permission allows Parliament to measure the effectiveness of the information that is being posted through Parliament. For example, Parliament is able to report on how many times a piece of content was shared, how often it was shared, the Parliament user(s) who shared it, and how often it was liked. This only applies when you are an Parliament Administrator.
Retrieve your posts, comments, reactions	This permission allows Parliament to measure the effectiveness of the information that is being posted through Parliament. For example, Parliament is able to report on how many times a piece of content was shared, how often it was shared, the Parliament user(s) who shared it, and how often it was liked. This only applies when you are an Parliament Administrator.
Create, modify, and delete comments on your behalf	This permission allows Parliament to share content to your public feed. In this instance, LinkedIn also combines the permission with commenting and liking posts. Parliament is able to post the content that you specified to your public feed; it does not inspect your feed, comment on or “like” any content.
Retrieve the number of 1st-degree connections	This is a standard permission from LinkedIn but it is not required for you to use Parliament. The Parliament App is an extension of the main Hootsuite product and inherits this access.

What information does Parliament collect?

Hootsuite collects the following information for the Parliament service:

• content (including images, videos, text and links) you upload onto the services for others (such as your employees) to share on their own personal social networks
• name and social network account information of the Parliament user, including the user name, social network ID, and access token. Optional profile information such as profile picture, email address linked to the account, and job title is collected if the user chooses to include this information in their profile.
• user login credentials to access Parliament (username, which is usually the employee’s corporate email address, and their Hootsuite password)
• user’s role within Parliament (for example, administrator, subscriber) and their chosen language
• log, usage and support data

For more details on the information Hootsuite collects about individuals, refer to Hootsuite's Privacy Policy.

Why does Parliament need employees’ social network account information?

Parliament posts content on behalf of your employees to their social network accounts. To do so, it needs limited access to their accounts. This access is only used to promote and report on the content that you are asking your employees to share. Using Parliament is entirely optional for your employees and they make the decision to authorize this connection.

Does Parliament monitor employees’ personal social network activity?

No. Parliament does not access or monitor your employees' social network activity unless that activity is done through Parliament and is limited to the content that you have designated appropriate for promotion. Even if a user comments on a piece of content that was shared on a social network (for example, on someone’s Facebook wall), Parliament will not access the comment itself.

Parliament only monitors and reports on the aggregate statistics of the content you approved to be posted through Parliament — information that helps you better understand which social media content results in higher levels of engagement, such as:

• number of likes and other sentiment indicators (dislike, happy, sad) on approved content
• number of likes and other sentiment indicators per social network
• number of shares/re-shares a piece of approved content received
• which employee has the greatest reach for your content.

For a complete list of aggregate metrics available to Parliament Administrators, check out the Metrics in Analytics article. Customers organizations may access additional information about their employees’ use of the Parliament product, including activity and engagement information generated through their use of the Parliament product. This information is still available even when the Leaderboard is not activated. Customers who purchased Parliament SecurityLogs may access further security-related information about their employees' use of the Parliament product (such as logins and login errors)..

If the Parliament Leaderboard is turned off, you will not be able to see which Parliament user has the greatest reach for your content. To avoid collecting such information about Parliament users and their sharing of social media content, you may turn off the Parliament Leaderboard. See Manage leaderboard settings for instructions on how to adjust your organization’s settings.

Does Parliament have access to contact data on employee phones or mobile devices?

Parliament uses the standard sharing framework provided by your device’s operating system, which is similar to any other application that is able to share information with other apps. Parliament does not download or store users’ contact data. This information remains on the device and is not stored within the application.

Does Parliament collect consent to post and access employee social network information?

No. Parliament can only be purchased by organizations through a Hootsuite Enterprise plan. As the employer, you act as the data controller for social content and determine if consent is required from your employees prior to inviting and authorizing their access to Parliament.

Hootsuite’s Privacy Policy and Trust Center site explains how we manage information about users of our services. The Privacy Policy is accessible from Settings within the application.

Get started with Parliament for advocates explains how users can connect their social networks to allow sharing of content on these sites. Hootsuite’s access to a user’s social network information is only used to share a user’s chosen content and to provide aggregated metrics.

How do you address requests from Parliament users to access or delete their data?

If you receive a request from your employee to access or delete their data, please submit requests to the Hootsuite Support team for processing within 30 days.