As you remember, Google had a bug with Google Tag Manager verifications for Google Search Console. I guess sometime after that, Google decided to automatically reverify sites using Google Tag Manager for Google Search Console verification. That led to people getting emails that they have new access to a property in Search Console. That email then led to security confusion.
Here is Yehoshua Coren on Twitter who does Google Analytics consulting saying "A client just got an email notification that I was added as an owner to Search Console for their site, but no changes were made by anyone as far as we know. Does anyone know about a bug that might be responsible for this email?" He added "The email says "new owner". I think that language is disconcerting. My client thinks I was messing with stuff without permission."
John Mueller from Google responded that "Yep, we're just reverifying GTM-verified sites from the glitch we had previously." He added "We opted to move quickly & get things into a clean state rather than create a new message campaign (localization generally takes 1+ weeks). Sorry for the confusion."
Here are the tweets:
A client just got an email notification that I was added as an owner to Search Console for their site, but no changes were made by anyone as far as we know. Does anyone know about a bug that might be responsible for this email?@rustybrick @JohnMu
— Official🥇 (@AnalyticsNinja) February 5, 2020
Yep, we're just reverifying GTM-verified sites from the glitch we had previously.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) February 5, 2020
We opted to move quickly & get things into a clean state rather than create a new message campaign (localization generally takes 1+ weeks). Sorry for the confusion.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) February 5, 2020
I didn't see too much widespread concern around this but I suspect in some of these cases, it can cause a lot of confusion and even concern?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
