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Why does the Chrome extension ask for those permissions?
Why does the Chrome extension ask for those permissions?

Demystifying the list of permissions we ask for

Cindy Chang avatar
Written by Cindy Chang
Updated over a week ago

You might've noticed our Chrome Extension asks for several permissions you might be unfamiliar with, so let's break down the details together ๐Ÿ™Œ

We hope by shedding some light here, the permissions won't be as scary as you might initially think!

Read and change all your data on websites you visitย 

Glean has a variety of features that enhance the user experience and shown in the native tool. Some examples are:

  • Native search replacement where Glean powers search directly in tools like Atlassian and Drive

  • Our Glean sticky tab appears on workplace apps where you can verify a document.

  • To use Go Links, it asks for an additional permission to read and change your data on โ€œgo,โ€ which enables redirection to shortened links

In order to provide these features, it requires this broad permission โ€“ but the access is limited to only workplace applications that work with Glean.

Replace the page you see when opening a new tab

We replace your new tab page with our search experience so you can bring up anything from any tool you use in an instant. You can still search Google from the browser's URL bar or disable Glean acting as the new tab at any time from the settings.

Read and change your browsing historyย 

We only use the "read" part of this permission so we can autocomplete search results for you and and improve search result ranking for individual users. The system only uses history from the workplace apps you've connected to Glean and other well known productivity apps that we don't currently index (e.g. Notion, Airtable, etc), and ignore all other history.

This data will never be shared with any 3rd party.

Read and change your bookmarks

We show a dismissible bookmarks bar on our new tab page, since replacing Chrome's default new tab page also disables the Google bookmarks feature which only shows the bookmarks bar on a new tab.ย 


Still got questions on the extension? Get in touch through the Messenger ๐Ÿ˜Š
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