A new Google alert popped up today at the top of spreadsheet. Anyone else getting this?
I also got this today:
Along with this email:
This is definitely very concerning to me as it clearly indicates that Google is actively monitoring the contents of our files. I knew that they *could* do this, but this just shows that they actually are doing it.
Plus, the only way it seems to have this banner removed is to have a manual review, which I assume an actual human would review the contents, which obviously contains sensitive data.
I’m not getting any of this, all is good on my end 
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Thanks for flagging this, @frank.cusano9 and @lions04. I’d love to hear more. Can you DM me with the following details…
- Are you able to use your spreadsheet?
- Do you have any additional information on the cause for the alert?
- Was there an event or change that you made to your spreadsheet that may have precipitated the alert?
- Have you scheduled a manual review (by Google)?
- Is this flag only on your Tiller spreadsheet? Not your other Google documents?
- Are your sharing preferences for the spreadsheet unusual in any way?
Thanks for your help. I hope we can resolve this quickly.
@frank.cusano9 I have received something like this before, but it has been so many years ago I can’t even guess. While your Drive is encrypted and employees can not access your files they do have bots that check for violations of terms of service. What got me many years ago is I had a spreadsheet with passwords in it. Apparently, you’re not allowed to store passwords. Ever since, I avoid using the word password in my files.
Please try the suggestion for file recovery in the email.
I do know some people at Google, if you’re not able to recover the file please contact me directly at alice@tiller.com and I’ll see what I can do.
-Alice
Tiller Evangelist
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Hi @randy , thanks for taking the time to look into this:
- Yes, everything is still working and Tiller is still filling transactions, but with that warning banner at the top
- It says that my Tiller spreadsheet “contains content that may violate Google’s Phishing Policy”. This is their phishing policy:
- “Do not use this product for phishing. This includes soliciting or collecting sensitive data such as passwords, financial details and National Insurance numbers.“
- The “financial details” portion could be the issue
- About a week ago I added a script that pulls my home’s value from Redfin. Similar to this post: Including Redfin Home Values Automatically
- Since this script is essentially scraping their website, this could potentially be an issue, but definitely not “Phishing”
- Not yet, I’m not a huge fan of letting some random Google employee snoop through my financial data. I may just copy and paste everything to a new sheet and see what happens.
- Just my Tiller spreadsheet
- Nope, just my wife and I have access
@TillerAlice , thanks for that info. Even if the files are encrypted, so long as Google also has the encryption keys then they can access the files if they wanted to. If a bot can access it then so can a human. With that said, I still plan on using Google, I just wish they didnt touch my files 
. Thanks for the offer to help, I may reach out if I cant get this resolved.
I was helping a project do data tracking on food prices around the country and we ran into this. Best I can guess is it’s a bot-generated thing that gets twitchy about what it sees as financial data on newer accounts.
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Thanks for providing more information on the issue, @frank.cusano9.
- I’m glad to hear you are able to use your spreadsheet despite the alert.
- Your Redfin script should not be an issue. That is a normal spreadsheet integration and Google builds their platform for that kind of tooling… but thanks for letting us know.
- I hear you on not wanting a random Google employee to comb through your spreadsheet.
I believe Google Workspace accounts ($7/month) are protected from their bots, but free accounts are not.
It’s a bit anecdotal, but @TillerAlice mentioned this AM a friend of hers at Google mentioned there is a known, active outage that this alert might be related to.
I also got this warning two days ago. Also seem to retain functionality. Was wondering if it’s worth asking for a review? But then again, I don’t want a human looking at my financial data.
Got the message also. Backed up everything and requested review from a human. If I lose access I’ll be able to restore the sheet. Looking into open source online sheet solutions.
Hi All, just wondering, are you still seeing this message/warning in your Google Sheets this week?
Yes - it is still there.
That’s annoying . I hope it remains non impactful on overall functionality. Thank you for the feedback @lions04 .