Updated on 28 March, 2024
Securing public links is essential to safeguard sensitive information, maintain control over shared content, comply with regulations, protect intellectual property, and prevent potential abuse or misuse of the links.
There are three main ways you can make your links more secure: Separating the decryption key from the link, adding an expiry date to the link, or password-protecting the link.
Using a separate decryption key
When you click or tap on Share link or Manage link, you will see an option to send the decryption key separately.
Doing this means that you can send the link (without the decryption key) publicly or privately and that link is unable to be accessed unless a person also has the decryption key.
Trying to access the link without the decryption key will only give that person a prompt to enter the decryption key; there’s no other way around it, to see the content, without entering the full, correct decryption key.
Adding a link expiry date
This feature is only available to Pro and Business accounts.
When you click or tap on Share link or Manage link, you have the option to set an Expiry date.
The expiry date must be at least one day in the future, and it expires at the time you created the link.
For example, if you created the link at 10:30 a.m. on the 10th of March, and set the expiry date as the 30th of March, the link will expire at 10:30 a.m. on the 30th of March.
Adding password protection to a link
This feature is only available to Pro and Business accounts.
- When you create a new password-protected link, as soon as you click the X to close the dialogue box the password can’t be changed or removed.
- A new password-protected link can be generated at any time. The previous password will not work on the new link.
- Creating a new password-protected link stops the previous link and its password from working.
To create a password-protected link:
- Tap or click Share link.
or
- If the file or folder already has a link, tap or click Manage link.
- Tap or click Set password.
- Enter the password and tap or click Confirm.
- Copy the link.
This is the only opportunity you have to copy this link, or to change or remove the password. After you click X, the Manage link screen will only give you the option to set a (new) password.
If you go back to Manage link, and click Copy to copy the standard link, people can access this link without being prompted for a password. They will only be prompted for a password if you give them the link you get when you confirm the password.
