Important Reminder: Granola Notes Are Publicly Accessible to Anyone with the Link by Default

If you’re using the AI-driven note-taking app Granola, it’s a good idea to review your privacy settings. While Granola claims that your notes are “private by default,” they can be accessed by anyone with a link, and the app uses them for internal AI training unless you choose to opt out.

Granola markets itself as an “AI notepad for people in back-to-back meetings.” It syncs with your calendar to capture audio from your meetings and employs AI to create a bulleted list of key points, referred to as a “note.” You can modify these AI-generated notes, invite collaborators to view them, and utilize Granola’s AI assistant to ask questions about your notes and examine the meeting transcript.

However, in the app’s settings, Granola states, “By default, your notes are viewable to anyone with the link.” This means that if you inadvertently share a link, anyone online could access your notes, which could be problematic for sensitive meetings. During my own testing, I discovered that I could view my note from a private browser window without logging into my Granola account. The site even displays the note’s owner and its creation date.

While I couldn’t access the entire transcript linked to the note, I could see excerpts. Clicking on one of the bullet points generated by Granola reveals a quote from the transcript related to that note, along with an AI-generated summary providing additional context about the discussion.

Granola mentions on its website that “full transcript access is available to collaborators who open the same folder or note inside the Granola desktop app.” It’s unclear whether anyone with a Granola account can view your transcript or if it’s limited to those you’ve shared your workspace with. Granola did not respond to a request for clarification before publication.

To adjust who can view your links, open Granola, click on your profile in the bottom-left corner, and select “Settings.” From there, go to the “Default link sharing” option and change “Anyone with the link” to either “Only my company” or “Private.” If you delete your note, those with the link will no longer have access.

A user on LinkedIn highlighted the public notes setting last year, noting, “these links aren’t indexed, but if you share or leak one – even accidentally – it’s public to whoever finds it.” Additionally, at least one major company has reportedly prohibited a senior executive from using the tool due to security concerns.

Granola also states that it “may use anonymized data” to enhance its AI models, according to the app’s support page. Enterprise users are opted out of AI training by default, but users on other plans are not. You can disable AI training by navigating to the settings menu and turning off the “Use my data to improve models for everyone” option. The company asserts that it does not permit third-party companies, like OpenAI or Anthropic, to use your data for AI training if this setting is enabled.

According to Granola’s security page, the company stores your notes in a US-hosted Amazon Web Services private cloud, ensuring they are “encrypted at rest and in transit.” The app does not retain audio from meetings; it only saves meeting notes and transcripts, which are processed in the cloud.