Have you ever shared files from your Google Drive with students’ parents or colleagues? Was it easier to set the share permissions to “Anyone with the link” instead of sharing with everyone individually? This can be tempting to do, especially when the list of recipients is extra long or you’re already short on time. However, doing so opens up your document to be found by anyone on the web and compromises the information within.
Suppose you’re an educator and have a document that holds information about student ID numbers, the full name of students or their family members, dates of birth, places of birth, or any other info that can be used to identify an individual. In that case, you risk violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) when you set share permissions to “Anyone with the link.” If the above information is compromised from your document, your school risks losing federal funding, and you could be personally fined.
In addition to only sharing with specific individuals, you can make it so that other editors cannot share the document with anyone else. Select the Share button in the upper right corner, click the Cogwheel, and uncheck the box for “Editors can change permissions and share.” This ensures that share permissions are not being changed without your approval.