Notion
Notion brings notes, documents, task lists and databases together in a shared workspace. It’s made by Notion Labs, based in the United States.
Criminals have used its name in fake downloads or scams, so get it only from notion.com.
What it is
People use Notion to organise notes, plan projects and share documents. Its pages can contain text, files, task lists and databases. Workspace content is stored on Notion’s cloud service.
Its optional AI Meeting Notes feature captures your microphone and meeting audio to make transcripts and summaries. This needs microphone and screen recording permissions. It can also request Accessibility access to add Zoom participants’ names to transcripts.
Notion is an established collaboration app. Its official Mac download comes from Notion’s website. Notion says it encrypts stored data and connections to its servers. Check who can access shared pages before adding private information.
Who makes it
Notion Labs is a software company based in San Francisco, founded in 2013. Its legal name is Notion Labs, Inc.. Its website is notion.com.
Is it the real one?
Every Mac app carries a signature from the developer who made it. Apple checks who the developer is before handing out the certificate, and macOS refuses to open an app whose signature has been tampered with.
HARD hasn’t yet recorded the signature on a real copy of Notion. Its Mac app shows who signed the copy you have.
Its bundle ID, the name macOS knows it by, is notion.id. Download it only from notion.com, not from an ad or a link someone sends you.
Fakes. In September 2025, Malwarebytes reported fake GitHub download pages impersonating Notion and other Mac apps to distribute Atomic Stealer. These pages instructed people to run a Terminal command that downloaded and executed malware.
What it connects to
In normal use, Notion talks to these places on the internet. A firewall that asks before apps connect, like the one in HARD’s Mac app, will show them.
| Address | Why |
|---|---|
notion.com | Notion website and services. |
app.notion.com | Workspace access. |
api.notion.com | Notion API requests. |
notion.site | Published Notion pages. |
img.notionusercontent.com | Images in pages. |
notionusercontent.com | User content. |
secure.notion-static.com | Page files and resources. |
audioprocessor.app.notion.com | Meeting audio processing. |
What it can see
macOS asks you before an app can use these. You can change them any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
| Permission | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Microphone | Captures your voice for AI Meeting Notes. |
| Screen & System Audio Recording | Captures other participants’ meeting audio for AI Meeting Notes, including when you use headphones. |
| Accessibility | Adds Zoom participants’ display names to meeting transcripts when you enable speaker labels. |
Security record
Problems with Notion or Notion Labs in the last three years, newest first. Keeping the app up to date covers the ones that were fixed.
| When | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| PromptArmor demonstrated that hidden instructions could make Notion AI leak document contents before a user approved an edit; Notion confirmed the fix was in production on 8 January. | ↗ | |
| CodeIntegrity demonstrated that hidden PDF instructions could make Notion AI send private workspace data through its web search tool; its report does not confirm a fix. | ↗ | |
| CVE-2024-23743 reported possible code execution in Mac versions through 3.1.0, but Notion disputed it because an attacker must launch the app with unusual flags; the record does not identify a fix. | ↗ |
References
- Deploy Notion for macOS notion.com
- Download Notion for desktop notion.com
- Notion — Sequoia Capital sequoiacap.com
- Notion privacy policy notion.com
- Why we built Notion notion.com
- Notion security practices notion.com
- Take AI Meeting Notes in Notion notion.com
- Get speaker labels in Zoom calls notion.com
- Notion IP addresses and domains notion.com
- What’s New — Mac and Windows notion.notion.site
- Fake Malwarebytes, LastPass, and others on GitHub serve malware malwarebytes.com
- Notion AI: Data Exfiltration promptarmor.com
- The Hidden Risk in Notion 3.0 AI Agents codeintegrity.ai
- NVD — CVE-2024-23743 nvd.nist.gov
- CVE record — CVE-2024-23743 cve.org