The consent screen is asking a fair question
Install any Gmail add-on and Google shows you a consent screen listing exactly what the add-on wants to do. Most people either click through without reading or close the tab in alarm. Both reactions skip the useful middle: the screen is answerable, and the answer takes about two minutes.
What the scopes actually mean
Workspace add-ons request named permissions – scopes – and Google lists them on the consent screen before anything is granted. The distinctions that matter:
- Read vs modify. Reading your mail and changing your mail are different scopes. An extraction tool needs to read messages in the searches you run; it does not need to send mail as you or delete anything. If the consent screen asks for more action than the product's job requires, that mismatch is your signal.
- Scoped to the job vs scoped to everything. Some scopes cover only the message the add-on is currently open on; others cover the mailbox. A tool that works across a whole label genuinely needs the broader read scope – the question is not "is the scope broad" but "does the job explain the scope".
- Where the code runs. An Apps Script add-on runs on Google's infrastructure under your own account's authorisation – a materially different setup from a service that copies your mailbox to its own servers. The consent screen will not tell you this; the vendor's documentation should.
Four questions to ask any vendor before granting access
- Does each requested scope map to a visible feature? If you cannot name the feature a scope serves, ask the vendor – a good one has the answer written down.
- Where does the data go? In-account processing, or copied out? If the privacy page does not say, that silence is the answer.
- What does Google know about them? Marketplace listings show the developer identity; add-ons using sensitive Gmail scopes go through Google's app verification. Absence of verification is visible as an "unverified app" warning at consent time.
- Can you leave cleanly? Uninstalling from the Marketplace plus revoking access (next section) should be the whole exit.
Revoking access takes one minute
Go to your Google Account → Security → Third-party apps & services → See all connections (myaccount.google.com/connections), open the add-on, and remove its access. The grant dies immediately; the add-on keeps nothing it was going to read next. Do this ruthlessly for anything you no longer use – old grants are risk with no benefit.
Where Contact Extractor stands
Contact Extractor is an Apps Script add-on that runs in your own Google account. It reads mail only within the search or label you point it at, and writes to a Google Sheet you own. The scopes it requests are the ones that job requires – and the two-minute check above is exactly the check we would want you to run on us.
→ Contact Extractor on the Google Workspace Marketplace
Sources
- Google – Choose Gmail API scopes – read 2026-09-02
- Google Cloud – Verification requirements for sensitive and restricted scopes – read 2026-09-02
- Google Account Help – Manage links between your Google Account & apps from other developers – read 2026-09-02