Google began notifying some Google Analytics administrators about a bug in the automatic owner verification process between Google Analytics and Google Search Console late this week.

Why you should care

In yet another example of a bug causing privacy issues for tech users, Google said a bug caused the emails of Search Analytics administrators to be sent to people who added the administrator’s site to Search Console but had not been marked as owners.

Jose Rivolta received an email (shared by Glenn Gabe of G-Squared Consulting and shown below) in which The Search Console Team said, “Between November 12, 2018 – November 12, 2018, a bug caused a confirmation email containing your email address to be inadvertently sent to Search Console users who had added your site to their Search Console account, but were not marked as owners.”

Google says no other data other than the email address was disclosed and “there has been no other unauthorized access to your Google Analytics or Search Console accounts as a result of this bug.”

I'm not a big fan of GSC auto-verification via GA. Although benign, this is why. There was a bug with GSC verification via GA on 11/12. Emails were sent out to users vs owners containing the person's email address. Only owners were supposed to see those emails. @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/i6uhi2bQIG — Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 7, 2018

More about the news

Google said the verification process was suspended immediately “and the bug was fixed” after detection.

In Aug., Google began automatically linking verification credentials for Google Analytics with Google Search Console. With the new auto-verification process, a verified owner of a Google Analytics property, is automatically verified as an owner for that website in Google Search Console. When a new owner is added to a Google Search Console property, Google sends an email to existing Search Console owners with the new user’s email address.

The new process was meant to add convenience, saving time for verified Google Analytics owners of having to manually request access to Google Search Console. Users that have access to Google Search Console can receive notices about potential site issues flagged in the system.