Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

#1

Post by HoyaSaxa » Thu, Jul 17, 2025, 3:59 PM UTC

If you have the Notion Desktop App installed, you may have started to notice a "In a meeting? Start AI Meeting Notes" notification pop up exactly when you are joining a virtual meeting (e.g. joining a Google Meet on Firefox).

At first, I assumed it must have been using my Google Workspace account to snoop on my calendar. But then I started to notice it would notify exactly when I joined even if I was late and the meeting had previously started.

This was the response from Notion Support after they worked with the Notion Engineering team.

> Meeting Detection Architecture:

> - The system uses a sophisticated dual-detection approach: microphone monitoring combined with network port analysis

> - Detection is implemented separately for macOS and Windows at the native operating system level

I've uninstalled the Notion Desktop App...

Re: Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

#2

Post by nihalbaig » Thu, Jul 17, 2025, 4:13 PM UTC

that's really corcerning for user privacy!!

Re: Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

#3

Post by whalesalad » Thu, Jul 17, 2025, 5:17 PM UTC

This is an unintended benefit of being on a Linux workstation - the only client available is the browser.

Re: Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

#4

Post by catapart » Thu, Jul 17, 2025, 5:22 PM UTC

yuck.

Re: Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

#5

Post by _kush » Thu, Jul 17, 2025, 5:23 PM UTC

They only check if your mic is on, not what you're saying (they can't hear you unless you've granted mic permission). They also look at your network traffic to see if audio is being sent (otherwise you can get a lot of false positives). Using mic + network data is a common way to spot meetings -- my app LookAway[0] does something similar to pause reminders during calls.

[0]: https://lookaway.app

Re: Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

#6

Post by e9a8a0b3aded » Thu, Jul 17, 2025, 5:23 PM UTC

Are you saying that Notion desktop has access to microphone audio or it is only able to determine if the microphone is in use?

The former is actually concerning to me. I can't imagine caring if it only knows my microphone is in use.

Re: Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

#7

Post by AlexandrB » Thu, Jul 17, 2025, 5:25 PM UTC

_kush wrote: post #5

They only check if your mic is on, not what you're saying (they can't hear you unless you've granted mic permission). They also look at your network traffic to see if audio is being sent (otherwise you can get a lot of false positives). Using mic + network data is a common way to spot meetings -- my app LookAway[0] does something similar to pause reminders during calls. [0]: https://lookaway.app

I thought you had to give explicit permission for an app to monitor network traffic in macOS? I'm assuming your app asks for this, but it sounds like Notion does not if the GP was surprised by the monitoring.

Re: Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

#8

Post by Torwald » Thu, Jul 17, 2025, 5:25 PM UTC

Thank you for telling HN, much appreciated! I am concerned re privacy, so, thanks again.

There is a rule in journalism to not burn one's sources, did you violate that rule in the OP? (I don't know, I am not a journalist.)

We could invite Notion management to comment on this thread.

Re: Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

#9

Post by rubyn00bie » Thu, Jul 17, 2025, 5:27 PM UTC

This is insane. The amount of absolutely sensitive audio they could be grabbing is unbelievable. And port analysis? Why anyone would think this sort of intrusion is acceptable is boggling my mind. It’s a writing app for god sakes. I hope the backlash from this is both severe and swift.

Re: Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

#10

Post by untech » Thu, Jul 17, 2025, 5:29 PM UTC

I’ve come to hate Notion with passion because of its abysmal performance, but I still pay for it for my small business. My non-technical employees use it as a database for clients, tasks, payments etc. I tried to research replacements several times, and still haven’t found anything good. Sometimes I wonder if I should build my own.