Analyzing Excessive Permission Requests in Google Workspace Add-Ons

Liuhuo Wan, Chuan Yan, Mark Huasong Meng, Kailong Wang, Haoyu Wang

Abstract: In the digital era, business collaboration platforms have become pivotal in facilitating seamless remote work and virtual team interactions. These platforms, typified by Google Workspace, offer an integrated suite of tools (such as Google Docs, Slides, and Calendar) that significantly enhance business operations. They often extend their functionality through the integration of third-party applications, known as “add-ons”. Google Workspace exemplifies this trend, blending traditional business solutions with advanced, add-on-driven capabilities. While this greatly augments productivity and collaboration for online personal or team work, concerns about the excessive use of data and permissions have been raised by both users and legislators, as add-ons can utilize the granted permissions to access and manipulate files managed by business collaboration platforms.

External IDs:dblp:conf/iceccs/WanYMWW24