You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

AN2023's avatar
AN2023
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

Privacy Concern: Dropbox documents that are linked in a Google Doc

We have a privacy concern. We keep confidential documents in our Dropbox. We recently linked some of these documents in a Google Doc for easy access for our leadership team to review. 

When they clicked the link they were able to view the document without logging into our Dropbox account.

How can we ensure only people with our login credentials can view the documents through these links?

We have reviewed all our folders and checked the "manage permissions" sections.

  • Folder Settings says "only the owner"
  • Link For Editing says "there isn't a link for viewing"
  • Link For Viewing says "there isn't a link for viewing"

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    2 years ago

    This option is available for Dropbox Business teams, as shared links can be restricted to team members only. 

     

    You can also have passwords on shared links depending on your current plan.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hi AN2023, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

     

    Could you clarify what you mean by your login credentials?

     

    Are you referring to user logins on a Dropbox Business team, or the actual login information for your account?

     

    This will help me to assist further!

    • AN2023's avatar
      AN2023
      Explorer | Level 3

      Thank you for your reply Jay.

      I am referring to the actual login information for our account.

      Is there a privacy setting to ensure that a link to one of our Dropbox documents can't be seen by anyone who comes across a link? To ensure that they would have to be logged in to Dropbox to see the document, or be prompted to log into our account to gain access/permission?

      I appreciate your assistance!

      • Jay's avatar
        Jay
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Technically, you shouldn't be sharing the password to your own Dropbox account, as this is a violation of the terms of service, and can result in account termination.

         

        Shared links are visible by everyone who has the link. It isn't possible to restrict it to your own account, since when you login with your account, the link would open into your account directly regardless.

About Security and Permissions

Start a discussion in the Dropbox Community forum to get help with your account security and permissions. Find support from Community members.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!