This article was published on July 14, 2015

Google Drive now lets you prevent others from downloading, printing and copying shared files


Google Drive now lets you prevent others from downloading, printing and copying shared files

Google wants to help keep your files a little more secure thanks to new Information Rights Management tools in Drive.

Simply put, you can now disable the ability to download, print, or copy a file through the advanced sharing menu. Developers can also implement the functionality in their apps with an API.

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Once you disable those features, documents, spreadsheets and presentations will notify you that export options have been disabled in the File menu.

export-disabled

Theoretically, this should make it tough for others to replicate files that may contain sensitive information. Of course, there are a few obvious ways to get around that extra security – Google can’t magically stop someone from taking a screenshot or using a camera – but sometimes just having that deterrent layer is enough.

The feature should be rolling out to everyone today. Sorry mobile users; it’s Web only for now.

Disable downloading, printing, and copying of any Google Drive file [Goggle Apps Updates via VentureBeat]

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