If your app is on a paid plan you can now use protected columns. Protected columns allow you to add an extra layer of security to your data. How does it work? Mark a column as protected and Glide will hide it, making it impossible to be loaded inside your app or the Data Editor. 
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Hello,
Great
How does it work: Pro Public & Pro Private or Pro Private only?
Super.
Can protected columns be used for logic, relations, etc.? Or they simply are hidden from glide entirely?
I have updated the description as it wasnât clear - this feature is available in all paid plans.
They are completely hidden from Glide. The data cannot be used at all.
So Glide canât read these columns? Then can you explain the use case please?
Letâs say you want to onboard users, asking for sensitive data, but you donât plan on using the data in your app (SSN, Address, etc). This info can still be collected in the spreadsheet without using it in the app.
I guess so, perhaps if your app was using a customerâs sheet to collect data?
Correct.
Or, if youâre using a massive spreadsheet filled with lots of unneeded data for the app, make all those protected and Glide wonât download the data theoretically making the app lighter?
Yup. I see that. Just watched @JackVaughan video too. Quite useful. Letâs see how this all pans out but it seems a very positive step in the right direction.
Does making a âprotectedâ column in the GDE remove it from your row count / speed up refresh times?
I donât think thatâs the case regarding the row count, itâs a column not a row. Other columns contributing to your data will still eat a row.
When this dialogue âMark column as protectedâ pops-up , there is no way escaping it.
âEscâ does not do it nor clicking outside the modal.
To clarify, Glide can read (and write) everything in your Google Sheet, even columns you mark as protected. When you mark a column as protected, Glide prevents apps from reading that column.
Glide is the thing that protects Protected Columns, so in other words, it controls them. Google Sheets would have to offer a Protected Columns feature itself, if your goal was to prevent Glide from reading the data entirely.
We will make this clearer in the documentation and video.
So just to be clear, this is purely a security feature and has no incremental performance benefit, correct? I.e., not intended to âprotectâ computed columns to speed up an app.
If the app is using Glide Tables only, is there a way to prevent local instances of a public app from downloading certain tables that arenât used for the interface? In my case I made a custom form with user specific columns and am writing a name and email address to a separate Glide table. Now my concern is that this table gets downloaded to everyoneâs device when opening the app.
Iâm thinking that through Zapier I can write these details to a Google sheet that isnât used by the app, instead of the Glide table, but Iâd much rather just mark the Glide table as âprotectedâ to prevent the data download. Of course, I donât want the cells obscured thoughâŚ
Could you use Row Owners for this purpose? This way, only the rows with the individualsâ email address would be downloaded to their device. You could also add another column that is a Row Owner and add in an administratorâs email address so that they can maintain access to all rows of data.
I tried this just now - I made an âAdminâ column in the table I want to protect, put my email address in it, and made it Row Owner, but suddenly the data disappeared from the cells, except for the RowIDâs. This seems like itâs okay, except when I change the âviewing asâ to my email the data doesnât reappear. I need to test this againâŚ
Try refreshing your browser window. Adding Row Owners can require a full browser refresh (in my experience at least!).
