The warning
Why does Google shout at you?
When you press Allow for the first time, Google shows a worried-looking screen: “This app isn’t verified”. Here is the short, honest story of why, and why it is good news. It takes about a minute.
1. Meet Pip. Pip is your own copy of the app. Pip lives in your house, which is your Google account, next to your Drive folders, and works only for you.
2. Then Google's bouncer shows up. He checks apps that lots of strangers install. Pip is not on his list, because nobody else installs Pip. Pip is yours.
3. To get Pip on the list, we would have to keep a copy of everyone's house keys on a server, and pay Google's inspectors every single year.
4. We would rather not hold anybody’s keys. No server, no database, no bill, and nothing of yours for us to lose or leak. Pip keeps the key at home, in your account.
5. So the bouncer is right, and so are we. You tell him "it is mine" once: Advanced, Go to the app, Allow. After that Pip works quietly in the background.
The grown-up version
- It is your own copy. Everyone who sets up Legacy Handover gets a private copy of the script, running in their own Google account. Google reviews apps that many people install from one place, and nobody installs Legacy Handover from one place.
- We hold no keys. We run no server and no database. There is nothing of yours for us to see, store, lose or leak, which is the whole point.
- Getting on the list would cost everyone. Google’s review for Drive and email access includes a paid security assessment every year, and an app run by us would need a server holding everyone’s access. That would end the free, nothing-stored promise.
- You can see what it can do. The permission screen lists it, the setup guide explains each item, and the code is open source under the MIT licence.
- You can undo it any time. Remove the script’s access in your Google account settings, or delete the Sheet. Nothing keeps running anywhere else.
What to click
- Advanced. It is the small link at the bottom of the warning.
- Go to Legacy Handover (unsafe). “Unsafe” means “not reviewed by Google”, and you have just read why.
- Allow. You only do this once.