Link settings and over-sharing

Anyone with the link means anyone on the internet. Restricted is the default for a reason.

Besides the named people in the sharing panel, every file has a general access setting that decides what happens when someone who is not named opens the link.

Setting Who can open the link Use it for
Restricted Only the people and groups listed by name Almost everything
Your organization (anyone at yourcompany) Anyone signed in with a company account Handbooks, menus, internal notices
Anyone with the link Anyone on the internet who has the link, signed in or not Public things only: a flyer, a published price list

“Anyone with the link” is not a secret. Links get forwarded, pasted into chats, left in browser histories and indexed by other tools. Treat it as public.

The three settings and how far each one reaches.

Three bands of increasing width: Restricted, the default, reaches only the people and groups named in the panel and is used for almost everything; Your organization reaches anyone signed in with a company account and is used for handbooks, menus and internal notices; Anyone with the link reaches anyone on the internet who has the link, is marked treat as public, and is used only for public things such as a flyer or a published price list
Restricted by default. Anyone with the link is public, whatever the file says.

The over-sharing pattern

Over-sharing almost never happens on purpose. It happens like this:

  1. Someone needs to send a file to a client quickly. The client’s address is not handy, so they switch the link to “Anyone with the link” as Editor and paste the link.
  2. The file is inside a folder. Or the folder itself gets the link setting, so every file added later inherits it.
  3. Nobody switches it back.

Six months later the payroll folder is open to the internet. The fix is a habit: share with a named person, and if you must use a link, set it to Viewer or Commenter, not Editor, and switch it back when the job is done.

Reading a sharing panel

When you review a folder, you are looking for four things:

Entry Problem
“Anyone with the link” on anything confidential Public access. Set to Restricted
A personal address (gmail, outlook, yahoo) A former contractor or someone’s personal account. Remove or confirm
A client or vendor as Editor Too much access. Commenter or Viewer
“Everyone at yourcompany” as Editor on HR or Finance The whole company can change payroll. Restrict to the group that needs it

A sharing panel with all four problems in it.

A mock Share panel for the Clients folder: the Sales team group as Editor is fine; jen at baysideprinting dot com as Editor is a client with too much access and should be Commenter; lee dot park dot design at gmail dot com as Editor is a personal address to remove; Everyone at yourcompany as Editor is too wide and should be restricted to the group; and General access set to Anyone with the link as Editor is public and editable and should be set to Restricted
Read a sharing panel entry by entry: does this person or setting still need access, and is the role the lowest that works?

Expiring access

For a contractor or an auditor, set an expiry date on their access when you grant it. You will not remember to remove it later; the expiry remembers for you.

Try it now

Search your Drive for files you own that are shared with anyone with the link (Drive’s search filters include a “shared with” option on desktop). Set each one back to Restricted unless it is genuinely public, and share it with the named people instead.

Remember: Restricted by default. Anyone with the link is public, and Anyone with the link as Editor is public and editable.

Checking your progress…