Default google calender entries in eM Client is Public

When adding a calendar entry into a gmail calendar within em client, unless the ‘private’ tick box is set, the entry is a publicly viewable entry.

Google calendar has three privacy settings - private, default and public and we need eM Client to include the equivalent of the ‘default’ setting.

The impact of this is all previous entries within eM Client to a google calendar if you didn’t check the ‘private’ box is they are all public.

If you have shared your google calendar with someone and used the ‘free/busy’ setting this gets overridden as the entries are all public. Combatting it and ticking the ‘private’ box means people who you have shared your calendar details with cannot see your entries.

The normal operation can been seen if you create an event using google’s calendar webpage, the privacy is set to ‘default’ and sharing options work as normal.

Please update eM Client asap as it is causing a security issue.

2 Likes

Hello,

this is actually by design as is it currently impossible to make default any other setting :confused:

with regards
Jan

Hi John,
Sorry for the delayed reply. I do want to understand this issue in greater depth.

Creating a calendar entry in the Google web calendar, I have three options for privacy: default, public and private.

Creating a calendar event in eMClient I have just a ‘private’ tickbox.
From what you are saying, there is ONLY a private OR public setting in this instance.

So everyone who uses eMClient has their calendar entries public?

and my second question: please can eMClient be updated so that the ‘default’ setting is the default (surely this can’t be difficult?), but there’s two tick boxes for public and private please?
I can’t believe you’ve set everyone’s calendars to public by design surely this is a breach of people’s personal information as they don’t realise that they are posting public information??

Thanks
Ian

Hi,

Yes, by default entries are public, so users with who you share your calendar can see them (only them, it is not like everyone on the internet can see it).

On Web calendar you can set this, but also you can set event as private in eM Client when it is created. Public simply means that if you share your calendar with someone he/she can see it, nothing else.

it is by design because that is how Google calendar supports it’s API, we have to follow it otherwise it would not be functional.

Jan

This is where the problem has been encountered - my calendar is shared with people, some can see events, others see busy/free only and this has really screwed it up.
So the Google API doesn’t allow for ‘default’ setting, is that what you’re saying?
Is that really the case?

Ian

Is this related to this issue or perhaps helps towards a potential solution. It certainly seems to hint that this variable can support the setting Im looking for:

https://developers.google.com/google-…

It references a ‘visability’ and has 4 states including ‘default’

I have wrote you what I have been told by developers.

Jan

Hi John,

Could you ask the developers what their thoughts are on my comment above this please…

We currently have no UI to display the “default” value and thus we can’t use it. This may change in some future version. There’s no way in the API to figure out what the default value is for a particular calendar.

From a layman’s view point would it not work by simply using ‘default’ in the variable?

This problem was reported six years ago. Do we have any plan or method to fix it? Thanks.

Hello. Just found out that eMClient has been exposing all my private events created through the Desktp app as public because of this bug.

This was reported 7 years ago. How come there’s no fix? There’s a major privacy problem here!!

More recently reported here "Private" by default

According to Google support page, Google shared calendar events “are private by default” even if it’s shared unless you change it to public.

(Quote from Google page).

Events from Gmail
Only you can see the events that are automatically added to your calendar from Gmail, even if you’ve shared your calendar with someone.

If you want others to see an event, follow the instructions to change the privacy settings for the event.

If you use Calendar through a work or school account, your administrator can see events from Gmail

@Erwan, can you check your Google Calendar sharing setting?

You have two options:

Afterall, it is Google that is sharing the calendar, not eM Client.

Hello. My Google Calendar is shared as “see only busy/free”.
when you create a new event you have the opportunity to set its privacy as Private, Public, or Default. In my case Default would be “see only busy/free” which is what I’d expect.
However, any event created from eMclient sets the privacy setting to Public, therefore overriding the status defined in Google Calendar (would have been private if the event was created within Google Calendar as reported by @cyberzork above) . This is why I’m saying eMclient has been consistently exposing all these events, and not Google Calendar itself.

The correct behavior would be to keep the Default behavior, or a minima to set Private for obvious privacy reasons. This is what was suggested in these 2013 and 2014 posts.

Yes i too have found that even though a Google “Shared Calendar” setting (Online) is set to “See only busy/free” as @Erwan advised above, when you add the Calendar Event in eM Client to your Google Calendar and look at the event in Google Online, the Event is shown as “Public” and not just for the peeps who you shared the Calendar too ?. See screenshots below.

I see however that if you create the event in your Google Calendar (Online) you can specify “Public or Private” in the Create Event Options. So i think the problem is that (eM Client) doesn’t have the option when creating the Google Calendar Event to make an event Private or Public.

Maybe the Google Calendar API doesn’t allow for third party clients to enable “Private or Public” when creating an event like in Google Calendar online ? Or it just hasn’t been enabled yet in eM Client ?.

image

Google Calendar Create Event Online (Has option to create private or public)

I have since found the (Private event) checkbox at the bottom left in eM Client new calendar event, that then “does update the event in Google online” to (Also Private) if you check that box and works fine.

It was so small down the bottom left i didn’t notice it :face_with_monocle:

Yes agree would be good to have Private and Public event options (for the default) in “eM Client Calendar Settings” so you don’t have to manually tick or untick at the bottom.

Ps In my case i would always want events to be Private even for Shared calendar events.

This option you set in Google is for events you create using their web interface. It is not for events created using other applications.

It may not be possible to set the “default” option with eMclient, however it is already possible to choose Public or Private for individual events from within eMclient by ticking the checkbox mentionned by @cyberzork

What you want to implement :

  • short term : have a global parameter to set Public or Private by default for events created within eMclient
  • short term (even urgent, privacy problem!) : set the default to Private, because with public you’re exposing people’s events without them knowing
  • short term : mention that Public/Private will override Google Calendar default behavior (that’s not obvious, and not all users will be doing the insightful research we’re doing now! )
  • long term : (if possible) find a way to use Google API to create an event without overriding Google’s calendar default behavior.

I think the first items can be implemented easily and will make eMclient much better regarding clients privacy!

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