Granola, an AI-powered note-taking app designed for busy professionals, is facing scrutiny over its default sharing settings that may compromise user privacy. While Granola claims notes are ‘private by default,’ they are actually viewable to anyone with a link and used for internal AI training unless users actively opt out.
Granola’s approach integrates with users’ calendars to capture meeting audio and generate summarized notes using AI technology. These notes can be edited, shared with collaborators, and reviewed with an AI assistant for deeper insights.
However, concerns arise from the app’s default sharing settings, which allow anyone with a link to access notes, potentially leading to unauthorized viewing of sensitive information. Even without signing in, users can access their own notes from a private browser window, revealing details about the note’s creator and creation time.
While full transcript access is restricted, partial content can still be viewed, including quoted text from the transcript along with AI-generated summaries providing context.
Granola users are advised to review their sharing settings to ensure privacy, with options to make notes private or restrict access to company members only. This revelation highlights the importance of understanding and managing privacy controls in AI-driven applications to safeguard sensitive data.
Source: The Verge