Why does Mail Merge require Permissions to my Google Account
When you install Mail Merge for Gmail, the app will require certain permission to access services associated with your Google account. The app only requests permissions that are absolutely necessary for the core functionality of the app.
The source code of the Mail Merge app has been completely audited by vendors appointed by Google and the app has been found 100% compliant with the Google API policies. If your organization requires a copy of the audit certificate, we'll be happy to provide.
Mail Merge Permissions Explained
Here’s a summary of the various permissions that the add-on requires and we also explain the reasons why the app require access to these services.
View your email messages and settings
The add-on needs to connect to your Gmail account to fetch the Gmail drafts that will be used as email templates for Mail Merge. It also needs to read the aliases connected with your Gmail account for sending emails.
Send emails on your behalf
The add-on sends emails through your Gmail account and you can send on behalf of any email address that is connected as an alias to your Gmail account.
Manage drafts and send emails
The Mail Merge add-on lets you create one or more Gmail drafts from existing templates. It also needs to read the Gmail drafts in your account that will be used as templates for Mail Merge.
Access to Google Drive
The add-on can pull files and documents from your Google Drive for inserting as attachments in your emails. You also have the option to upload files from the computer to Google Drive that will be sent as attachments. The add-on will never delete any file from the Drive.
Access to Google Contacts
You can import your Google Contacts into the Google Spreadsheet with the Mail Merge add-on. It requires access to fetch the contacts and write them to the sheet. It will never delete or edit any contact in your Google Contacts.
Access to Google Sheets
All the mail merge data and settings are contained in a Google Spreadsheet. The add-on needs to connect to the Spreadsheet service to read the email addresses and configuration for sending merges.
Connect to an external service
When you buy a Mail Merge subscription, it connects to the external payment processor API to verify your payment and activate the product.
Send email as you
The core function of the Mail Merge application is to send emails. Thus it requires permissions to send emails on your behalf.
Allow this application to run when you are not present
Mail Merge can send scheduled emails and it does so by running a cron job in the background on Google servers. The scheduler will run even while your computer is turned off.
Display and run third-party web content in prompts and sidebars inside Google applications
The Mail Merge add-on can be managed via the sidebar available inside your Google Sheets.