Google Drive's sharing and collaborative aspect stands out among cloud platforms, but did you know that there are best practices for sharing in general? In this week's post, we talk about these best practices, the principles of which you can also apply in other cloud storage tools that allow for sharing.
Sharing mindfully is a topic near and dear to my heart, and I will preach about it to anyone who will listen :) In a previous post, we talked about Sharing Safely in Google Drive, but because Google has changed the sharing dialog box since then, I thought it might help to revisit this topic.
Tips for end-users and small businesses:
1. For starters, sharing can be done in two ways:
Directly from a Google file by clicking the Share button.
OR
From inside Google Drive. The easiest way is to right-click (PC) or Ctrl-click (Mac) to find the sharing option. This way, you have a choice to share files or folders; one by one or in bulk.
2. You can share with the following types of email accounts or Groups:
Gmail.com account
Google Workspace account
Google Account without Gmail (yes, those exist!)
Google Group
Non-Google Account with visitor sharing (in Google Workspace)*
*With visitor sharing, the visitor has more limited access: it only allows for collaboration on limited types of files; also the visitor will have to request a PIN every 7 days to verify their identity.
3. When you share, you have a couple of notification options:
You can have an automatic notification email go out.
OR
You can share silently, without notification (uncheck the box). This option is great for when you want to send a more personalized message. People tend to respond better to human-written messages, and this way you don't duplicate emails.
4. In the lower section of the sharing dialog box, you can set more general access:
Share with anyone who has (is given) the link, with the ability to view, comment, or edit.
In addition, you have settings to make a file accessible to your organization if you are using Google Workspace, or to the public if allowed.
You can even make a file findable inside your organization.
This section of the dialog box provides improved clarity for sharing, and now gives the option to copy the URL to a file without opening up link sharing access (which was the behavior prior to this redesign).
💎 KloudGem 1: To copy a Google file’s URL (with the exception of Forms and Sites), you can even just grab the URL from the address bar of your Chrome browser. That way, you don't need to jump through any hoops.
💎 KloudGem 2: Be cautious about turning on the shareable link which lets anyone at your organization or anyone from the public access your file. Much like email attachments, these links can be re-forwarded to anyone. If this is a concern, share to email addresses (or Groups). This way, only those you choose to share with get access.
💎 KloudGem 3:
In the My Drive section of Google Drive, you have the ability to share a folder and then remove access at lower levels, but this is not something I recommend, as it's easy to accidentally reconfigure sharing by adding a person at the top level and expose unwanted information at the lower folders. My recommendation is to start with a smaller group at the top folders and add additional people at the lower folders.
If you use Shared drives (Google Workspace Business Standard edition and up), the sharing is a bit less flexible, but also less error-prone. You have the ability to add members to a Shared drive and add extra people on folders or files. The Manager role controls most of the access.
Tips for mid-size companies and large enterprises:
💎 KloudGem 4: If you work with people outside your Google Workspace organization, be aware that any files they create, they own in their My Drive; just because a file has been shared with you does not necessarily mean that you have perpetual access to it, so have a clear agreement and understanding of file ownership among the people you work with.
Need a Google Workspace expert for your organization's digital transformation and change management? Contact me for a free first consult: https://www.kloudgem.com/get-in-touch/contact
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