Table of contents
Gmail Forwarding
WorkSights can track outgoing email activity from your Google Workspace users by forwarding Gmail header metadata through a secure compliance rule. This provides visibility into email volume and workload patterns without accessing message content.
What WorkSights Captures from Emails
WorkSights receives header-level metadata for outgoing emails: the information Gmail includes before the message body, which is enough to show activity patterns without exposing content or attachments.
WorkSights captures the sender's name and address, recipient names and addresses, To, CC, and BCC fields, the subject line, and the timestamp. Message bodies and attachment contents are never received.
Setup Instructions
Step 1: Log into admin.google.com
Open the Google Workspace Admin Console at admin.google.com.
You need admin permissions to complete this configuration.
Step 2: Open Content Compliance
Navigate to Apps, then Google Workspace, then Gmail, then Compliance. You can also go directly to the Content Compliance settings at admin.google.com/ac/apps/gmail/compliance. If the direct link does not load for your domain, follow the menu path manually.
In the left-hand corner, open the main menu (☰) and go to Apps, then Google Workspace, then Gmail:
Once you're on the Gmail settings page, scroll down until you find the Compliance section (highlighted in yellow in the screenshot):
Click Compliance to open the detailed settings panel.
Step 3: Create a Content Compliance Rule
In the Compliance section, scroll down to Content Compliance and click Configure (highlighted in yellow in the screenshot):
This opens a modal where you'll define the forwarding rule that lets WorkSights recognize outgoing email activity.
1. Name the rule anything you like, for example WorkSightsTracking.
2. Select the message types Outbound and Internal - Sending. This ensures that only emails sent by your users are included. Incoming mail is never shared with WorkSights.
3. Under Expressions, click Add and enter your company domain in the Content field, for example acme.com (shown in yellow as acme.com below):
Leaving this field empty prevents the rule from matching anything, so including your domain is important.
Click Save to confirm the match.
4. Scroll down to Also deliver to and select Add more recipients:
Click Add and enter the recipient as track@mail.worksights.ai
For EU-hosted customers, the recipient will be track@eu-mail.worksights.ai.
Click Save to confirm the address, and Save again to finalize the overall Rule.
Additional Tips
This rule forwards header metadata for outgoing messages only. You can refine it by adding exclusions for specific users, groups, or header patterns, and you can disable it at any time.